Executive Board - Terms of Reference

The Woodland Carbon Code is the UK standard for woodland carbon projects. Scottish Forestry provides Woodland Carbon Code services under the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments.  

The Memorandum of Understanding is between The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for the UK Government and The Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy for the Scottish Government and The Minister for the Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs for the Welsh Government and the Forestry Commissioners for the Cross-Border provision of Forestry Functions and Research Delivery. 

The Executive Board is the executive body responsible for managing the day-to-day running of the programme, including its application, promotion and technical development. 

The Executive Board will agree and review an annual work programme provided by Scottish Forestry and agree any revisions to the code and associated guidance.  

The Executive Board will focus on decisions and issues that do not require senior level agreement across forestry authorities.

Specific tasks include:

• Annual review and regular update of the standard and supporting guidance
• Interpretation of the Code and its application, including dispute resolution
• Commission research to further develop and enable the widening of scope of the scheme
• Ensure coordination with other developing carbon standards in the UK (e.g. Peatland Code)
• Design of the validation, monitoring and verification process
• Support for the operation of the registry
• Project validation/verification support and governance
• Approval of validation/verification bodies
• Ensuring a consistent approach and high standard of assessment by validation/ verification bodies
• Capacity building, communication and promotion of the code
• Periodic reports on and evaluation of the code
• Establish sub-committees as necessary to deal with specific issues

The Executive Board reports to the Nature Markets Strategy Board and provides direction to the Woodland Carbon Code team.

The Advisory Board and the Disputes Panel advise the Executive Board.

The Executive Board is a standing board with members of the Woodland Carbon Code team at Scottish Forestry and a representative from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland forestry authorities.  

The board is chaired by the Head of Economics and the Woodland Carbon Code, Scottish Forestry. The Woodland Carbon Code team provide secretariat support. 

Current members are listed on our governance page. 

New representatives of the Woodland Carbon Code team will be agreed by the Head of Economics and the Woodland Carbon Code. New representatives of the forestry authorities will be elected by the Chief Executives of the relevant forestry authority.

The Executive Board meets around six times per year. Members attend Executive Board meetings at their organisation’s expense.

Minutes of Executive Board meetings are publicly available at www.woodlandcarboncode.org.uk/board-minutes 

Representatives of all four forestry authorities need to be involved in decisions. If any country representative is not present at a meeting, the Woodland Carbon Code team will discuss with them separately. Decisions are made by majority. In the case of a split decision, the chair has the casting vote.

Members of the Executive Board will complete a Declaration of Interest form and this will be reviewed annually. Declarations will be reviewed by the Woodland Carbon Code team but will not be made public. The Woodland Carbon Code team will decide on the appropriate action.

Depending on the nature of any conflict, the board member could be removed from the board or be removed from meetings concerning the project, organisation or subject through which there is a conflict of interest. 

The Woodland Carbon Code Carbon team produces an annual report on the code, its governance, the projects and activities over the year, financial information and a look ahead. This is available at www.woodlandcarboncode.org.uk/about