2.2 Management plan

Requirement

Guidance 

Management planning documentation

Longer-term management intentions

Woodland Carbon Code mapping rules

Requirement

  • There shall be a management planning documentation, initially for the establishment period, containing:
    • An outline of the necessary inputs and resources, including a full financial analysis
    • A summary of operational techniques
    • A chronological plan of key project operations
    • Consideration of species selection for future climate
    • A map. The map shall align with the Woodland Carbon Code mapping guidance
  • The management plan shall be updated on a regular basis. There shall be an outline of the longer-term management intentions, for the project duration and beyond.
  • The land manager shall have the management capacity necessary to carry out the planned project activities for the duration of the project.

Guidance 

Management planning documentation

If the project is receiving a woodland grant (or, as it matures, has a felling licence), any existing woodland management planning documentation may provide sufficient evidence. There should be a process for updating the management plan. The key aims and objectives of your project as well as the type of woodland to be created should be summarised in your project design document (and updated in your project progress report if changed). 

The UK Forestry Standard (including the sustainable forest management elements of climate change, soil, water, biodiversity, landscape, historic environment and people) sets out sustainable forest management standards for the UK and requirements for management planning.

  • My Forest provides free woodland mapping and management planning software
  • The Land App also provides free mapping services

In Scotland, the Scottish Land Commission provides further guidance on land management standards in their Good Stewardship of Land Protocol.

Longer-term management intentions

Project developers need to set out the intended management regime of the woodland for the project duration and beyond (e.g. regular thinning, clearfell with a given rotation length, continuous cover forestry, or minimum intervention). This should be consistent with the management regime assumed in the Woodland Carbon Code Carbon Calculation Spreadsheet.

WCC mapping rules

Projects should provide a clear and easily understandable map of their woodland creation project as a PDF. The map forms an important part of the Woodland Carbon Code documentation. It will be uploaded to the UK Land Carbon Registry and will be a publicly available document enabling potential carbon buyers as well as validating/verifying bodies to locate your project and identify the different elements within it. If you have already produced a map, e.g. for a grant application, then provided it accurately represents the planting carried out and meets these mapping rules, it can also be used for the Woodland Carbon Code. Maps should include:

Base map

Ideally this should be an Ordnance Survey map, but other map formats are acceptable, provided they accurately show features such as roads, boundaries, woodlands, watercourses etc. Depending on the size of your project, you can use any appropriate scale of base map.

Scale

The map should show the scale of the original base map.

Title - Name of project

The map title should be the same name that you are using in the UK Land Carbon Registry and in your other project documents (project design document or project progress report).

Outer boundary

The outer boundary of your project should be clearly marked, ideally in red. 

Open ground

Any open ground within the open boundary should be clearly marked, where this is feasible. This should include 'open ground' which is part of a grant contract as well as any 'other land' which is not planted.

Existing woodland and any other areas not accounted for

Any existing woodland or young planting which are not part of the carbon project but are within the boundary should be clearly marked.

Fencing

Where new fencing, fence upgrades and gates will be added, please show this clearly on the map.

Please ensure this is clear where it is coincident with project or section/sub-compartment boundaries. Provide a second map with new fencing, fence upgrades and gates if it’s not possible to show everything on one page and ensure all maps are joined into one PDF.

Grid reference

Your map should be labelled with a six figure British National Grid Reference. The location of the Grid Reference should be clearly marked on your map, within the boundary of your Woodland Carbon Code project. This should be the same Grid Reference you use in other documentation (i.e. project design document, UK Land Carbon Registry). If your project has several separate components/stands, use the Grid Reference of the most central or the main/largest component as the Project Grid Reference. 

Access point

Please indicate the most suitable access point(s). This will be useful when survey or verification visits are required.

Legend

All features (area, line or point) on the map should be clearly identified in the map legend.

For natural regeneration only

A secondary map of the site is required showing any seed sources, the gross, net and 'upfront claimable' areas and existing mature trees. If claiming Pending Issuance Units upfront for any areas beyond 50m from existing seed sources, then you must complete a third map of the seedling survey showing the presence and condition of any existing seedlings on the site. Both of these maps must be combined into a single PDF with the main Woodland Carbon Code map.

Sections/sub-compartments

If desired, any sections/sub-compartments within the woodland can be clearly marked and labelled (for example shaded with different colours). The woodland might be subdivided into sections based on planting mix, spacing, establishment year or site type. If each section is dealt with separately in your Woodland Carbon Code Carbon Calculation Spreadsheet, then use the same names for sections/sub-compartments on the map and in your carbon calculation. The sections/sub-compartments may be helpful later at the monitoring and verification stage when thinking about stratifying your site. 

Maps over multiple pages

If your map has several pages, please ensure:

  • the project name appears on each page
  • there is at least one component/ stand with marked Grid Reference on each page to enable location of the components on that page
  • all pages are combined into one PDF document

Further guidance and advice

UK Forestry Standard

Free woodland management or mapping tools:

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