The concept of High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) appeared in 1999 as the principle #9 in the Standard of Sustainable Forest Management, developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This concept was designed to support forest managers in their effort to enhance the sustainability of social and environmental aspects in the wood production.

In Indonesia, the first national guide of HCV was developed by the end of 2003 with the title "Forest Identification, Management and Monitoring using High Conservation Value: Toolkit for Forest Managers and Stakeholders". This toolkit was developed by national and international stakeholders with different scientific backgrounds. As part of the development process and field verification a series of dissemination and socialization workshops were organized by Rainforest Alliance and Proforest . A first draft was issued in August 2003, which included components of identification, management and monitoring of the HCVF in Indonesia and a revision plan for the final version.

When the HCVF Toolkit Indonesia version 2003 was applied, some constraints were identified related to a more extended scope of the work, an un-clear and not consistent concept and definition, and a limitation regarding socialization. Based on those limitations, a revision of the toolkit was started in the middle of 2006 by several stakeholders.. This revision was organized by a NGO partnership consortium under the coordination of the Institut Sumberdaya Indonesia (InRi) and Daemeter Consulting with the participation of The Nature Conservation (TNC), Tropenbos International Indonesia Programme (TBI Indonesia), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International (CI), Flora Fauna International (FFI) and the Rainforest Alliance.

The purpose of the revision of the toolkit was to provide more detailed information on the HCV concept and methodology, its definition and abbreviations, steps on HVF identification process and the responsibility and rights of the parties. This revision was done under a participatory process through a series of stakeholder discussions, with two working groups and stakeholders meeting from national to province level.

The final revision of the toolkit was done in the middle of 2008 under the title of "Identification Guideline High Conservation Value Area in Indonesia". The objective of this toolkit is to provide a standard protocol for HCV assessment that ensures quality, transparency and integrity on its application in Indonesia. It gives an explanation of the required steps on HCV assessment, a definition on the responsibilities and rights of the parties and provides a guideline for the collection of data and information under a minimum requirement of time and quality. This toolkit is written as a generic document to be applicable in many sectors, including conventional forest concessions, palm oil plantations or forest plantations, mining and land use.

The toolkit is now available in Bahasa Indonesia and English version. Pdf version of the toolkit will be available in this web site soon.