The peak body for the Australian forest, wood and paper products industry has applauded Forestry Tasmania’s progress toward seeking Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), Mr Ross Hampton, said “In Australia, around 27 million hectares of native and plantation forests are independently certified to the two internationally recognised schemes, that being the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) under the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) international standards.”
“The Australian forest products industry is highly committed to internationally recognised certification and 100 per cent of AFPA grower members, including Forestry Tasmania, are accredited with either, or both, of the AFS and FSC schemes.”
“The recent audit report released by Forestry Tasmania found that it has a high degree of compliance with the FSC standard, having met 91 per cent of the applicable indicators, and Forestry Tasmania is publicly committed to addressing remaining requirements.”
“Certification of our domestic forest products industry provides an additional assurance above the high level of government regulation that the products we harvest and produce are from environmentally sustainable sources. It also helps to promote greater transparency in the market place given the risks of imports from illegally logged sources or areas with poor forest management.”
