High Conservation Value Forest definition for Ireland
Consultation ongoing through 30 September 2008
For information, click here.
Get involved in forest certification in Ireland
Join IFCI
Membership in IFCI is open to all interested individuals and organisations. Members may serve on the Steering Committee or a technical working group, work on a particular theme in developing the standard, or compiling newsletter updates - or just receiving them.
To join, just download the membership form and post it in with the 5 euro annual fee.
Membership in IFCI is organised along the three-chamber structure of FSC -social, economic, and environmental- so no one interest group can override others. For example, environmental organisations and people with expertise in biological diversity and landscape would be in the environmental chamber. The social chamber includes local communities, recreational users, forest workers, and social researchers. The economic chamber includes forest owners, managers, and contractors who are committed to the Principles of FSC.
Members receive notification of upcoming Steering Committee meetings and the agenda 14 days in advance.
FSC is a special organisation in that it brings together interested people and organisations with widely divergent interests and views:
As members of FSC, we are all engaged in building something quite exceptional. We are creating an organisation, for which there are few models for us to learn from. And, in so doing, we have chosen a highly challenging organisational model. When, as we do, you deliberately bring together people and organisations with very different needs, aspirations and views, it is almost guaranteed to result in conflict, which can be either positive or negative. We need powerful principles to deal with the natural conflict that comes of bringing Chambers together. Without them, our discussions will be driven by sectional self interest with each party seeking to exert their power over another. Within this scenario, our policies and processes will be designed to ‘stop/limit’ others rather than build the organisation, and future, we want. from the FSC Plantations Review Policy Working Group Final Report
In order to ensure discussions and collaboration is productive and positive, the IFCI Steering Committee uses ground rules and a professional facilitator.
Click here to see who is currently serving on the Steering Committee.