Common guidance for the identification of High Conservation Value

This document builds on a series of Good Practice guides for High Conservation Value (HCV) practitioners and auditors. Over the past few years, as global HCV definitions are amended and as the HCV approach has been adopted by ever more and diverse initiatives, it is useful to take stock of current guidance and provide an update. This document does not intend to completely replace the existing guidance, but it aims to widen the scope of use of HCV and to provide guidance based on practical field experience. In recent years there has been growing concern amongst members of the HCV Resource Network, HCV practitioners and other interested parties, that the HCV approach has not been applied consistently across different land use sectors or geographies. The identification of values within a specific landscape and site should be based on a common interpretation of the HCV definitions, as set out in this document. This document is intended for HCV assessors, especially those working without the benefit of national interpretations, to provide guidance on interpreting the HCV definitions and their applications, with the goal of providing some degree of standardization in use of the HCV approach.