Australia, Thursday 23rd October 2014: Independent forest management auditor, the Soil Association, announced the West Australian Government-owned Forest Products Commission (FPC) has met the requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) International Controlled Wood standard.
To comply with the Controlled Wood standard the FPC will undertake staged harvesting of select portions of the forest certificate coverage area of 244,612 hectares under strict provisions, which includes the protection of old-growth High Conservation Value areas.
FSC Australia CEO Natalie Reynolds said it was important to understand that Controlled Wood is not full FSC Certification and is not an endorsement of responsible forest management.
“Controlled Wood evaluations allow companies to avoid unacceptable wood being mixed with full FSC Certified and/or FSC recycled wood in products carrying the FSC Mix label,” Reynolds said.
“For many forest managers it is the first step towards achieving full Forest Management Certification and provides assessment against only the FSC’s most fundamental prerequisites, such as ensuring wood is not illegally harvested and harvesting does not threaten High Conservation Values.”
“Wood sourced from the identified harvesting zones cannot carry the FSC label unless they are mixed with fully FSC Certified or recycled wood under strict conditions. No labelling or claims for promotional or marketing purposes are allowed.”
“Under the FSC Australia High Conservation Values Evaluation Framework, designed to assist in interpreting the FSC Controlled Wood standard, the FPC cannot harvest ecologically mature forest where the effects of disturbances are now negligible, even where they have been logged in the past, but where they retain such characteristics.”
As a result of the additional requirements on the FPC under the Controlled wood standard, at least an additional 84ha of forests with these characteristics have now been protected. Continued identification of old-growth forest is an ongoing requirement of the Controlled Wood standard.
Following a preliminary assessment in January 2013, which identified 15 non-compliances (seven minor and eight major), the Soil Association said the FPC had undertaken significant work to resolve the issues and demonstrate adherence to the Controlled Wood standard throughout the extensive formal auditing process.
Under the FSC International’s rules, the whole forest management area must be assessed, harvest zones and plans within that forest are then reviewed and stakeholder feedback on all forest management practices are taken into account.
“FSC standards have been designed to ensure the fundamental nature and composition of forests remains over time and FSC Australia encourages managers of natural forests to publicly commit to making changes to their forest management practices in line with these standards,” Reynolds said.
All FSC certified forests are audited yearly to check their long-term management plans continue to meet relevant local standards. Stakeholder feedback is a vital component of the independent auditor’s assessment to identify potential issues and provides local communities and stakeholders with an avenue for constant feedback, which wouldn’t otherwise be required.
“We encourage all stakeholders with an interest in the area managed by the FPC to continue to provide feedback to the auditors, enabling them to conduct thorough assessments going forward.” Reynolds said.
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Notes to producers/editors
• For information regarding the auditor’s findings please contact the Soil Association or view their full report here.
• FSC Controlled Wood ensures the avoidance of wood in FSC Certified products that come from unacceptable sources such as:
- Illegally harvested wood
- Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
- Wood harvested from forests where High Conservation Values are threatened
- Wood harvested from forests being converted to plantations or non-forest uses
- Wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted
- No claims of ‘FSC Controlled Wood’ are allowed for promotional purposes and no labelling is allowed for products sold as ‘FSC Controlled Wood’. FSC certified processors and manufacturers can only mix ‘FSC Controlled Wood’ into products containing FSC certified or recycled sources under specified conditions. These products can be labelled ‘FSC Mix’.
About FSC Australia:
- FSC Australia is a national office of an international non-government, non-profit organisation that promotes responsible forest management practices through multi-stakeholder standard setting and an internationally-recognised certification labelling program.
- The FSC scheme exists to protect biodiversity and is recognised globally as having the most rigorous environmental, economic and social standards for responsible forest management.
- FSC certification assessments and preliminary assessments are carried out by accredited certification bodies, such as the Soil Association, that are internationally qualified and managed by Accreditation Services International.
- FSC Australia is not involved in decisions about who receives FSC certification or which independent auditor does – we are the guardian of the scheme and organise the membership to set the standards.
- In Australia 1.1m hectares of forests have been certified to full FSC Forest Management standards.
- Globally the FSC has certified more than 180 million hectares of natural and plantation forests in more than 90 countries.
- FSC Australia has tasked nine representatives from economic, environmental and social backgrounds with developing the first unique set of Australian owned forestry standards. Through three rounds of stakeholder consultation and expert input the group is currently halfway to creating a locally relevant standard in line with the FSC International’s Generic Indicators, scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.