Forest Stewardship Council ignores deadline: Governance deadlock

FSC Australia’s refusal to accredit native forest logging has prompted the international body to take action.

The Forest Stewardship Council of Australia is ignoring calls to fix its ongoing refusal to certify native timber harvesting. Picture: Simon Baker

THE Forest Stewardship Council of Australia has ignored the demands of its German head office to fix ongoing “governance” problems, after repeatedly failing to accredit native forest harvesting.

Internationally FSC has certified thousands of tonnes of timber harvested from native forests across the globe, including merbau decking sold by Bunnings, sourced from West Papuan rainforests under Indonesian military control.

According to an FSC spokesperson, some 90 per cent of the forest certified internationally is native forest.

But its Australian arm continues to knock back certification for native forest harvesting operations.

FSC says it has certified a 182,000-hectare project in Western Australia, representing about 3.4 per cent of Australia’s annual logging total.

According to an FSC spokesperson it has also authorised projects in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. However, it has refused to provide details of the companies involved.

Three of its directors have actively campaigned against the sector – MyEnvironment spokeswoman Sarah Rees, Wilderness Society’s marketing campaigner Peter Cooper and Australian National University academic Chris Taylor.

Ms Rees has even written tweets stating “If it’s FSC certified it’s not native”.

When asked in July whether he was concerned at perceived bias against the native forestry sector by FSC Australia, chief executive Damian Paull said it was a “concern to some of our members”.

At the time Mr Paull defended FSC’s record, saying it was working with state-owned Sustainable Timber Tasmania on gaining accreditation.

But just last month FSC rejected the Tasmanian Government-owned native forestry operator’s application.

Industry sources have told The Weekly Times FSC’s head office in Bonn, Germany, gave its Australian arm until the middle of last week to fix its governance problems.

But when contacted this week the FSC would only confirm “the deadline was September 15”, and said Mr Paull would not be making any comment.

One timber industry source close to the FSC said the Australian arm was trying to ignore its German head office’s demands.

In the meantime Bunnings is still insisting VicForests gains FSC Australia accreditation before the hardware chain will take any timber harvested from the state’s native forests.