HCV Approach
Our methodology protects High Conservation Values from the impacts of land-use change.
Working to protect nature and local people’s livelihoods in support of the Global Goals.
According to the United Nations, the world’s population is projected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030. This means there will be even greater demand for food, the production of which is likely to be met at the expense of natural ecosystems. Clearing natural ecosystems to establish farms and plantations is the fourth largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Many areas designated for commodity production are home to indigenous peoples and local communities, plants and animals, water resources, and forests and other ecosystems. These natural and social systems play a critical role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, meeting the Paris Agreement, and implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework – designed to help build a greener, fairer, better world by 2030.
With huge opportunity for transforming the way we impact our world, and to avoid unnecessary loss or degradation of high conservation values on the ground, we provide practical tools to conserve nature and benefit people particularly where commodities are produced.
Protected areas cover just over 15% of the planet’s land surface and roughly 7% of marine areas. These areas are incredibly important to conservation. The billions of hectares worldwide which are current or potential future sites for commodity production (e.g. wood, pulp and paper, oil palm, sugarcane, cotton, rubber, and cocoa) also harbour important high conservation values which may be at risk from land-use change. The HCV Network’s work is centred around these vulnerable areas outside of protected areas.
The HCV Approach supports dialogue, decision making, the identification of rights in relation to resources, planning for the future, and the recognition and due valuation of the services coming from natural ecosystems to society which previously may have been unacknowledged.
We offer communities, smallholders, businesses, policy makers and wider stakeholders a practical, ground-tested entry to co-inquiry and subsequent collaborative action on what matters most for today and in the future. This includes adapting resource management for more sustainable outcomes, and ensuring transparency in decision-making, all based on a sound assessment of needs and dependencies.
Our Solution
The HCV Approach is a 20-year methodology that pragmatically identifies and protects High Conservation Values (HCVs) from the impacts of land-use change. It is globally applicable, works across a wide range of scales (large landscapes or jurisdictions, farms, plantations, management units, smallholdings), ecosystems (from forests to grasslands and aquatic systems) and productive systems.
Our methodology works by:
Using the best available science to identify what HCVs are present, potentially present, or absent in a development scenario.
Involving stakeholders (such as Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities) in identifying and co-managing HCVs.
Considering interconnections between the wider ecological landscape and the local social context.
Monitoring the effectiveness of management actions to ensure the long-term protection of HCVs.
The six High Conservation Values
An HCV is a biological, ecological, social, or cultural value of outstanding significance or critical importance. The six categories of HCVs are:
HCV 1: Species Diversity
Concentrations of biological diversity including endemic species, and rare, threatened or endangered species, that are significant at global, regional or national levels.
HCV 2: Landscape-level ecosystems, ecosystem mosaics and IFL
Large landscape-level ecosystems, ecosystem mosaics and Intact Forest Landscapes (IFL) that are significant at global, regional or national levels, and that contain viable populations of the great majority of the naturally occurring species in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
HCV 3: Ecosystems & Habitats
Rare, threatened, or endangered ecosystems, habitats or refugia.
HCV 4: Ecosystem Services
Basic ecosystem services in critical situations, including protection of water catchments and control of erosion of vulnerable soils and slopes.
HCV 5: Community Needs
Sites and resources fundamental for satisfying the basic necessities of local communities or indigenous peoples (for livelihoods, health, nutrition, water, etc...), identified through engagement with these communities or indigenous peoples.
HCV 6: Cultural Values
Sites, resources, habitats and landscapes of global or national cultural, archaeological or historical significance, and/or of critical cultural, ecological, economic or religious/sacred importance for the traditional cultures of local communities or indigenous peoples, identified through engagement with these local communities or indigenous peoples.
Elements of the HCV Approach
We provide those using the HCV Approach with a clear and tailored process to follow, and appropriate tools and guidance to ensure a robust and consistent implementation.
HCV Screening
HCV Screening is a predominantly desktop exercise that uses the six HCV definitions to characterise the environmental and social aspects of a landscape or jurisdiction. Screening considers: the likelihood that HCVs are present, identifies threats to those HCVs and indicates which values are most at risk. You can find more information in our library resources on Screening and Screening case studies.
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Contact our team about HCV Screening
HCV Assessment
Identification of High Conservation Values is at the heart of the HCV Approach. A good quality field-based HCV assessment interprets findings related to the identification of presence of the six HCV categories using a precautionary approach, quality stakeholder consultation, with consideration of the wider landscape, and where relevant to the case in question, the scale, intensity and risk of any proposed development.
You can find out more about how the identification of HCVs is done from our library resources.
Learn more
Explore how the HCV Approach works with Smallholders
Find out more on joint HCV and High Carbon Stock forest assessments
Contact our team about HCV Screening
HCV Management and Monitoring
The HCV process involves the assessment of HCVs, the development and implementation of management strategies and prescriptions for their maintenance and/or enhancement and, finally, monitoring and adaptive management, where needed, sufficient to ensure the long-term conservation of the HCVs.
Together, management and monitoring are part of the adaptive management cycle to improve management effectiveness over time. Good management practices require additional safeguards or protective measures, particularly if there is a risk of disturbance from activities in logging concessions, agricultural plantations, or other production sites. Attention to designing and implementing appropriate management activities, and through monitoring those measures for their effectiveness, is critical to ensure the future presence of HCVs.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance of HCV assessments is an effective step to ensure that High Conservation Values are robustly identified and protected. To date, quality assurance has mainly focused on high-risk developments. The HCV Network’s Assessor Licensing Scheme (ALS) was developed ensure robust identification of HCVs and HCVs alongside High Carbon Stock (HCS) forests in high-risk settings.
The ALS conducts desk-based evaluations of reports produced by professionals licensed to lead HCV or HCV-HCSA assessments. You can find out more about how the quality assurance of HCV assessments is done from our library resources, as well as find published quality assured reports.
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Contact our team about Quality Assurance of HCV Assessments
Who uses the HCV Approach?
Users of our methodology are broadly divided between:
IMPLEMENTERS: Those who implement or use the HCV Approach to identify, manage and monitor HCVs and related outcomes on the ground. Examples include:
- Commodity producers or growers, including smallholders, who commit to protect HCVs through company policies and objectives, who meet certification standards and their explicit requirements on HCV protection, or who commit to wider sector initiatives.
- Indigenous peoples or other local communities who use the HCV approach as a tool for or during their territorial planning, implementation and advocacy.
- Local actors such as local NGOs who support management and monitoring of HCVs, stakeholder identification and engagement, who have specific expertise which helps with the use of the HCV Approach, such as in FPIC processes.
- Professional technical organisations that support identification and protection of HCVs, in verification of assessments, and in auditing and quality assurance work.
- National and regional governments, in land use strategy development and land planning exercises, and in setting out sector related policy.
DRIVERS: Frameworks and organisations advocating for and requiring ground-level implementation for progress on sustainability, for achievement of commodity certification, and securing high-level actions and commitments through supplier, investee, insurance, or similar relationships. Examples include:
- Voluntary Sustainability Standards that require HCV protection as a condition for obtaining and maintaining certification.
- Financial institutions such as commercial banks, to ensure their investments (in agribusiness or other) do not have negative impacts on HCVs.
- Civil society initiatives, such as the Accountability Framework Initiative.
- Industry and private sector initiatives such as the Consumer Goods Forum.
- Benchmarking initiatives, such as Benchmark Minerals Intelligence.
Governments and multilateral organisations as part of efforts to identify areas suitable for agriculture, conservation, and other activities.
Get Involved
Our Mission as a network is to provide practical tools to conserve nature and benefit people, linking local actions with global sustainability targets.
We welcome the participation of organisations that share our vision and mission to protect and enhance High ConservationValues and the vital services they provide for people and nature. By collaborating with the Network, your organisation can contribute to safeguarding HCVs while gaining valuable insights and connections that support your sustainability goals.
We are seeking collaborative partners to help expand and enhance our work, as well as talented professionals who can join the growing Secretariat team, and for professionals who can contribute to the credible identification of High Conservation Values globally.
Join us in securing the world’s HCVs and shaping a sustainable future.