Bunnings sets ‘impossible’ hurdle for Victorian native timber

Hardware giant Bunnings has set the Victorian native timber forest harvesting industry an almost impossible goal.

Bunnings protest: A logging truck blocks the entrance of the hardware giant's Traralgon store last week.

BUNNINGS hardware chain is demanding all Victorian native forest timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council of Australia, which includes three directors opposed to native timber harvesting.

Australian Sustainable Hardwoods chief executive Vince Hurley said “it appeared Bunnings has set VicForests an almost impossible goal”, given FSC has not certified one Australian supplier of native forest timber and had three directors openly opposed to it.

Those FSC Australia directors include MyEnvironment spokeswoman Sarah Rees, who has spent years campaigning against native forest logging and recently tweeted: “If it’s FSC certified it’s not native”.

Fellow director and Wilderness Society’s marketing campaigner Peter Cooper, along with Ms Rees, also signed a letter in June this year informing Nippon Paper that “FSC controlled wood certification is not supported across the environment movement in Australia”.

The third director is Australian National University academic Chris Taylor, who has issued numerous tweets critical of VicForests and written articles calling for an end to logging in Melbourne’s water catchments.

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Yet while FSC Australia has failed to certify any local native timber harvesting, it’s a different story when it comes to its international arms.

Overseas 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.

FSC Australia chief executive Damian Paull admitted no local native forest harvesting operation had been granted the FSC stamp of approval. He said Sustainable Timber Tasmania was seeking accreditation.

As for the three directors Mr Paull said FSC “recognised some of our members have an advocacy role”.

But he admitted those directors’ ongoing activities in opposing native forest logging were a “concern to some of our members”.

VicForests chief executive Monique Dawson has written to the international arm of the FSC in Germany calling for the FSC Australia directors to be removed, arguing the board was stacked against native timber forestry.

Bunnings notified the state’s timber industry earlier this month it would not take any more timber cut from logs supplied by VicForests, due to a Federal Court ruling that VicForests had breached the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014.

At least 170 Victorian timber workers face losing their jobs in the wake of Bunnings ban on VicForests.

Bunnings merchandise director Phil Bishop has told VicForests timber sourced from its forests will not regain access to its stores unless it won an appeal against the court ruling and gained FSC Australia accreditation.

Last week loggers blocked the entrance to Bunnings’ Traralgon store with four massive trucks in a bid to highlight the hypocrisy of the hardware giant’s ban on selling Victorian native forest hardwoods, while importing timber harvested from West Papua and Malaysian rainforests.