High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) are defined by the Forest Stewardship Council as forests of outstanding and critical importance due to their high environmental, socio-economic, biodiversity or landscape values. HCVFs comprise the crucial forest areas and values that need to be maintained or enhanced in a landscape and are found within a wide range of forest conditions (largely intact to largely fragmented).
Although originally designed as a tool to help forest certification, the HCVF concept is being extended to more general conservation planning including the design of representative networks of protected areas and buffer zones. In practice, many HCVFs will continue to be managed outside protected areas and here approaches will vary, but two principles are paramount: (1) HCVFs are managed to maintain the attributes that are of high conservation value, and (2) management employs the precautionary principle, which requires that where the effects of extraction and other management are unknown, values are ensured through a cautious approach.
