FSC Australia is encouraging community groups, environment experts and all forestry stakeholders to have their say on the future of Australian forest conservation and harvesting practices, with the release of the second draft Forest Stewardship Standard for public consultation.
Throughout August and until October 14th the FSC will seek feedback from a wide range of voices to assist the nine member Standards Development Group (SDG) reach a consensus on more than thirty key forest management issues from an economic, social and environmental perspective.
FSC Australia CEO Adam Beaumont said the public consultation period was a unique opportunity for all Australians to help shape the first ever FSC standards specific to the Australian environment.
“With almost a million hectares of Australian forests now FSC certified and unprecedented market pressure driving more forest managers to adhere to our standards, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the community to have a significant impact on the future of forest management in this country,” Beaumont said.
“From timber workers, manufacturers and land owners, to mountain bikers, bird watchers, indigenous communities and conservationists, we want to create a standard that benefits all forest users both now and into the future.”
The Standards Development Group’s Independent Chair Dr Evelyne Meier said the second draft of the standard was the result of a lot of hard work and collaboration by the standard group, which were elected by FSC members in September 2013 to represent the views of the three chambers: social, environmental and economic.
“All nine parties must agree on each and every issue before the standard is finalised and the group have done a remarkable job tackling a number of highly contentious issues,” Meier said.
“Considerable portions of the standard are close to finalised and now just require further stakeholder review and testing. It’s a huge ach1ievement for a group of people with vastly differing views to come together under FSC’s International framework and reach a consensus on best practice forest management.”
Meier said feedback from experts and the community had been crucial to the development of the second draft of the Standard and further input is vital.
“We have been dealing with many experts and encourage more of you to please get on board as well as help us find the voices we might be missing. The SDG can only consider the views that have been put to them,” Meier said.
In particular the FSC is seeking expert help on a number of issues, including High Conservation Values, Indigenous rights, workers’ rights, representative sample areas, water protection and environmental impact assessment.
What are we seeking feedback on?
In this round of consultation we are seeking comment on:
- Draft 2 of the FSC Australia – Forest Stewardship Standard (FSCA-FSS): https://goo.gl/43Gh4Z
- Discussion Paper – Scale, Intensity and Risk: https://goo.gl/SY11gC
- FSC Australia HCV Framework for Forest Management: https://goo.gl/qsUqGT
- Verifiers: https://goo.gl/ZR78e4
How to provide your feedback:
FSC Australia has created an online form for providing feedback on indicators and criteria in the standard: http://goo.gl/forms/kFrWct5mDX
Feedback on the discussion papers and the HCV Framework can be provided directly to FSC Deputy CEO Daniel Mackey by emailing d.mackey@au.fsc.org.
The standard is complex, you will notice in the documents a small number of areas that due to their importance and complexity require more in-depth discussion and analysis to reach consensus.
Where feedback is specific please try and reference the document (e.g. "question 1" or "page 3 - section 1")
Over the coming weeks further documents will be released, including summaries of consultation on Draft 1 of the Standard and copies of the expert briefs that have been circulated during drafting.
Over the next weeks SDG members will be engaging their chambers whilst members of the Indigenous Working Group and FSC Australia will also be travelling around Australia to talk to interested stakeholders.
Please feel free to contact FSC Australia if you are interested in learning more.