Tuesday, January 17: Rainforest Alliance public meeting in Elmvale

Residents urged to fill out questionnaire to assist in audit of county operation

RAINFOREST ALLIANCE PUBLIC MEETING
January 17, 2017 7pm to 9pm
Elmvale Community Hall (33 Queen St. W.)

from the Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance is undertaking a conformance verification audit to evaluate the proposed excision of a 5.5-hectare parcel of forest that The County of Simcoe looking to convert to develop an Organics Processing Facility and Materials Management Facility.

The site presently selected is located at 2976 Horseshoe Valley Road West, Springwater. Due to its new planned vocation, the area is proposed to be excised from the scope of the FSC Forest Management Certificate the Corporation of the County of Simcoe obtained in 2010. As a prerequisite, Rainforest Alliance will be assessing conformance of the proposed excision against the requirements under the Rainforest Alliance Great-Lakes-St Laurent’s Forest Management Standard (GLSL) as well as its excision policy (FSC-POL-20-003) to validate that the circumstances meet the FSC requirements.

These standards are available at the following links:

– GLSL standard: https://ra.secure.force.com/SWPubDocs/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=
– FSC Excision Policy: 01550000001Kee1AAC https://ic.fsc.org/en/certification/requirements-guidance/normative-framewor.k/policies.

EVALUATION PROCESS OVERVIEW

The on-site audit will take place on January 17th 2017 during which site visits and interviews will be conducted with SIMCOE County staff and external parties who have been involved in the process leading to the selection of this proposed excised area.

Prior to this on-site audit, the audit team will review documentation provided by Simcoe County and/or acquired through stakeholder engagement. A public summary of the audit report which will include a description of the audit process and conclusions as well as a summary of the stakeholder input received will be posted no later than 90 days following the on-site audit.

STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION

The following questionnaire has been elaborated to facilitate the collection of stakeholder comments, which is an important part of audit processes. Please note a public meeting will be held from 7 to 9 PM on January 17th at the Elmvale Community Hall (more information provided at the end of the survey) where the audit team will be available to provide more detailed explanations on the audit process and take note of input received during this meeting.

Download the questionnaire – rainforest-alliance-questionnaire

The Rainforest Alliance would prefer to receive your responses by January 13, 2017 prior to the public meeting however they will make paper copies available at the public meeting should you not be able to access and complete the questionnaire prior to the public meeting.

More information:
Mylène Raimbault Email : mraimbault@ra.org

from Friends of Simcoe Forests:
Your participation in this survey and your attendance at the public meeting are welcome and very much needed.