Continuous improvement approach for better focus, clarity and efficiency: The 2023 HCV-HCSA Assessment Manual
The HCV Network and High Carbon Stock Approach have released the updated 2023 HCV-HCSA Assessment Manual, the result of learnings from five years of deployment, assessment and assurance. Here we share the main aspects of how this new manual addresses called-for improvements by producers and assessors, responding to make the assessment guidance and assurance process clearer, more efficient and focused, whilst maintaining its robustness and credibility.
Putting robust assessment into context
Globally, there are enormous efforts underway to tackle deforestation and conversion in diverse commodity production settings. In response to the widespread risks for deforestation to occur, business and commodity certification standards, have incorporated methodologies such as the HCV Network’s High Conservation Value Approach and the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) which identify, protect, manage and monitor the most important areas of land to conserve for their environmental and social values.
When these methodologies are deployed, whether as part of certification processes or not, they need to be assessed for their robust application. To enable this to happen, those undertaking the assessments and their assurance need to know what framework of details to assess against.
Understanding the need to work across multiple commodity certification scenarios in diverse geographies across the humid tropics, the integrated HCV-HCSA Assessment Manual was introduced with that in mind. First produced in 2017, an update was needed to reflect learnings from the conduct and assurance of over 110 HCV-HCSA assessments, often in scenarios posing high risks to High Conservation Values – or HCVs, and/or where landowners, buyers, and other users such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil require independent validation of any claims made to protect HCVs or High Carbon Stock (HCS) forest.
Continuous improvement
The 2023 manual update considered inputs from a public consultation which saw over 300 comments from diverse stakeholders. What is most important to note from the outcome of this process and resulting manual version is that the 2023 Manual will increase the efficiency in assessments and assurance processes.
A big plus in this update is that the 2023 Manual provides a single document that gathers all existing requirements - including those from related guidance, to make the assessment process much clearer for both assessors and reviewers.
Other key points at a glance:
- Clearer scope for assessment and reporting as unnecessary content about processes before/after assessments has been removed
- Clearer differentiation between assessment and reporting requirements, including a detailed checklist of required contents and quality criteria
- Firmer focus on content for what an assessment team needs, as the primary audience
- Adapted reporting requirements, that now do not include preparatory processes, but instead confirm the assessor’s commitment to best practices through a sworn statement
- Recognition of the existence of complex (i.e., with land conflict) and simpler (i.e., developments with no affected communities) assessment contexts when detailing assessment and reporting requirements
Getting to the right result
We all want assurance processes to be robust, but at the same time we also want to ensure that they do not inadvertently hinder progress towards certification. This review and update was a major opportunity to address the formulation of the manual to address elements which could potentially prolong the assurance process or even cause an assessment to fail, but not necessarily due to the right assessor’s performance-related reasons.
All processes of certification and related assurance can be improved by use and experience, followed by adaption to get them working effectively. So, the 2023 Manual addresses issues that were found as hindrances through assessments and reporting in real life. Here are some examples of issues, how they were leading to assessment report resubmissions, and how they have been addressed.
.png)
In conclusion: better quality assurance, better outcomes on the ground where it matters most
Inadequate identification of HCVs and HCS forest can potentially lead to inappropriate development and subsequent negative impacts on local communities, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystem services, and more. So, it matters that we have assessment and assurance methodologies that support delivering better practices on the ground. Other producers, buyers, investors and regulators also build confidence in deploying approaches like the HCV and HCSA approaches, via certification standards for commodities with best practices, if assurance plays its part.
Thousands more hectares of important environmental values for society can be protected through good assessment and assurance methodologies. We believe the updated 2023 HCV-HCSA Assessment Manual can help with this goal.
For any questions, please contact Ruth Silva.
Related Posts
Protegiendo el carácter ambiental y social único del sureste de México con el Enfoque de AVC
Hace dos años, HCVN y FEMEXPALMA firmaron un acuerdo de cooperación para promover prácticas sostenibles de producción de aceite de palma a través de la conservación, el desarrollo de capacidades y la divulgación. Hoy, el involucramiento de los pequeñosproductores se ha vuelto esencial en la protección de los Altos Valores de Conservación.
Read More
Protecting southeastern Mexico’s unique environmental and social character using the HCV Approach
Two years ago, HCVN and FEMEXPALMA signed a cooperation agreement to promote sustainable practices in palm oil production through conservation, capacity building, and outreach. Today, the contributions of small-scale producers have become essential in the protection of High Conservation Values.
Read More
Débloquer des incitations pour des solutions fondées sur la nature avec les communautés forestières
L'outil Forest Integrity Assessment (FIA) est une approche de liste de contrôle simple et conviviale conçue pour permettre aux gestionnaires de terres et à d'autres non-biologistes d'effectuer des estimations rapides et efficaces de l'état de la biodiversité forestière.
Read MoreOur Partnerships
Alongside many global initiatives, our work with partners promotespractices that help meet the global Sustainable Development Goalsand build a greener, fairer, better world by 2030.
Femexpalma
In April 2022, FEMEXPALMA and the HCV Network signed a 5-year cooperation agreement to promote sustainable production of palm oil in Mexico. FEMEXPALMA is a Mexican independent entity that represents palm production at the national level and promotes the increase of productivity in a sustainable way.
With global markets becoming stricter, for Mexican producers to be able to export to key markets such as the European Union, they must meet strict requirements such as certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). To be certified by RSPO, the HCV Approach must be applied prior to the establishment of any new oil palm plantations. With this cooperation agreement, the HCV Network will support FEMEXPALMA’s members and allies to design better strategies to identify, manage and monitor High Conservation Values and support smallholders to achieve RSPO certification and implement good agricultural practices.
High Carbon Stock Approach
The High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) is an integrated conservation land use planning tool to distinguish forest areas in the humid tropics for conservation, while ensuring local peoples’ rights and livelihoods are respected.
In September 2020, HCV Network and the HCSA Steering Group signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their collaboration to conserve forests and uphold community rights in tropical forests. The HCS and HCV Approaches are cornerstones of corporate no deforestation and conservation commitments, and increasingly for actors working at different scales. The collaboration aims to further support effective implementation of these commitments through increased uptake of the HCV and HCS tools.
Through this MoU, HCSA and HCVRN are pursuing two main strategic goals:
- Strive to promote the application of the two approaches in tropical moist forest landscapes and explore further opportunities for collaboration.
- Ensure that, where the two approaches are applied together, this happens in a coordinated, robust, credible, and efficient manner, so that HCS forests and HCVs are conserved, and local peoples’ rights are respected.
World Benchmarking Alliance
From May 2022, the HCV Network is an ally at the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). WBA is building a diverse and inclusive movement of global actors committed to using benchmarks to incentivise, measure, and monitor corporate performance on the SDGs, and will assess and rank the performance of 2,000 of the world’s most influential companies against seven systems of transformation by 2023.
The scope of WBA’s circular transformation was expanded to cover nature and biodiversity as recognition of the need for greater understanding, transparency and accountability of business impact on our environment. The WBA Nature Benchmark was launched in April 2022, which will be used to rank keystone companies on their efforts to protect our environment and its biodiversity. As HCV Areas are recognised as key areas important for biodiversity, companies that publicly disclose their actions to identify and protect HCVs will contribute to the assessment of their performance against the benchmark.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures - TNFD
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is a global, market-led initiative, established with the mission to develop and deliver a risk management and disclosure framework for organizations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, with the aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.
In April 2022, the HCV Network joined the TNFD Forum. The TNFD Forum, composed of over 400 members, is a world-wide and multi-disciplinary consultative network of institutional supporters who share the vision and mission of the task force.
By participating in the Forum, the HCV Network contributes to the work and mission of the taskforce and help co-create the TNFD Framework which aims to provide recommendations and advice on nature-related risks and opportunities relevant to a wide range of market participants, including investors, analysts, corporate executives and boards, regulators, stock exchanges and accounting firms.
Aquaculture Stewardship Council
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is the world’s leading certification scheme for farmed seafood – known as aquaculture – and the ASC label only appears on food from farms that have been independently assessed and certified as being environmentally and socially responsible. In 2021, the HCV Network and ASC formalised their collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU represents the first step in a fruitful relationship aimed at conserving HCVs in aquaculture. Although, existing guidance on the use of the HCV Approach currently focuses mainly on forestry and agriculture, the HCV Approach is however generic, and in principle also applicable to aquatic production systems. Through this MoU, this is recognised by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in their ASC farm standard, in which the protection of HCV areas is mentioned in the context of expansion
Accountability Framework Initiative
The Accountability Framework initiative (AFi) is a collaborative effort to build and scale up ethical supply chains for agricultural and forestry products. Led by a diverse global coalition of environmental and human rights organizations, the AFi works to create a “new normal” where commodity production and trade are fully protective of natural ecosystems and human rights. To pursue this goal, the coalition supports companies and other stakeholders in setting strong supply chain goals, taking effective action, and tracking progress to create clear accountability and incentivize rapid improvement. In July 2022, the HCV Network joined AFi as a Supporting Partner. AFi Supporting Partners extend the reach and positive impact of the AFi by promoting use of the Accountability Framework by companies, industry groups, financial institutions, governments, and other sustainability initiatives, both globally and in commodity-producing countries.
Biodiversity Credit Alliance
The Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA) is a global multi-disciplinary advisory group formed in late 2022. Its mission is to bring clarity and guidance on the formulation of a credible and scalable biodiversity credit market under global biodiversity credit principles. Under these principles, the BCA seeks to mobilize financial flows towards biodiversity custodians while recognising local knowledge and contexts.
The HCVN joined the BCA Forum in August 2023 to learn more from the many organizations already coming together to find effective pathways to opening up credit-based approaches, and how to contribute our knowledge and experience of years of working in a practical way, often with global sustainability standards and their certified producers, to protect what matters most to nature and people.
.png)
Nature Positive Forum
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.