Group certification

Group certification is an alternative to individual forest certification, allowing many smaller forest owners to become certified as a Group and share the financial and administrative costs involved. Given the fragmented nature of private forest ownership in Ireland, Group Certification would be the most cost effective option for private forests and would facilitate better access to timber markets.

 The Pilot project focused on the following elements:

• General Group Structure - what elements are required to run a group effectively.
  
  
• Documentation
  • Forest Management Manual - a set of templates to assist woodland owners / forest managers with record keeping in compliance with forest certification schemes
  • Group Management Manual - a set of documents outlining management of a forest certification group.
    
    
• Group Certification Process - a brief outline of the group certification process from joining a group to achieving forest certification.

For a Webinar presentation on Groupcertification, see FORESTRY.IE Insights Webinar entitled 'Forest Certification – Requirements & Solutions' dated 25th November 2021