Appeals
WHC ensures that Conservation Certification remains valuable to all participants by maintaining standards and credibility through the certification and renewal process. The optional appeal process is designed to allow programs that received a “Not Certified” outcome to provide additional information to, or clarify information from, the original application, if needed.
Eligibility
If a program receives an outcome of “Not Certified,” the applicant has an option to appeal. Only habitat, species and education projects are eligible for the appeal process as these are the project types that can result in certification. Appeals must be submitted within 14 days of receipt of the “Not Certified” outcome.
Appeal Process
- Review the application outcome materials provided by WHC to identify which requirements were not met.
- Determine if additional information or documentation can be provided to demonstrate that the project does indeed meet requirements.
- Complete an appeal form for each eligible project* you wish to appeal. The appeal form will include the original answers to the relevant questions required for a project to qualify. Within the appeal form, you can clarify and/or add additional information to your original answers.
- Once the appeal is submitted, the appeal will be sent to the same reviewers as the original application unless those reviewers are unavailable, or WHC determines the original reviewers did not properly conduct the original review.
- A final outcome notification will be sent once the appeal review is complete.
