Webinar: Quick Guide to HCV-HCSA assessment – Social Requirements

The RSPO Principles and Criteria (2018) include new requirements to ensure the effective contribution of RSPO to halting deforestation. Thus, RSPO prescribes that any new land clearing (in existing plantations or new plantings) after 15 November 2018 is preceded by an HCV-HCS assessment, using the HCSA Toolkit and the HCV-HCSA Manual.  

The integrated HCV-HCSA assessment is a participatory process for identifying social and environmental values to be conserved in production landscapes. The HCV approach, HCSA and the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) are integrated as part of the technical assessment, which is undertaken by an assessment team in collaboration with affected local and indigenous communities, relevant experts, the company and other interested stakeholders. The output of the HCV-HCSA assessment is a report detailing the identification and location of environmental and social values (i.e., HCVs, HCS forest, peat, local people’s land). The assessment report is meant to serve as the foundation for the producer/project developer, communities and other stakeholders to move forward with the development of an Integrated Conservation and Land Use Plan (ICLUP). 

Obtaining FPIC is a responsibility of companies and has to be initiated before the HCV-HCSA assessment begins in order to ensure that there is a participatory mechanism to share information and consult on the proposed land development plans, fostering a joint decision making process.  Whilst the FPIC process starts before the assessment stage, the relationship with the communities continues after the assessment is completed.

In this webinar, we offer you a quick guide to the HCV-HCSA assessment, focusing on the social phases for implementing the HCS approach. The presenters, i.e., HCVN and/or HCSA, will explain the social requirements in the pre and post assessment phases and describe the community involvement in these assessments. Please find below for the webinar sessions date and register to join the webinar here.