Jackie Jarvis
Forest sustainability has taken on different meanings in Western Australia – changing depending on the audience. In one corner the Minister for Forestry, Jackie Jarvis, has repeatedly claimed the closure of the native forest industry was necessary because it was unsustainable. Source: Australian Rural & Regional News
In the other corner is Stuart West, the General Manager of the Minister’s agency, the Forest Products Commission, overseeing harvesting operations in the jarrah and karri forests which have been independently certified as being sustainable.
Both can’t be right, can they?
Then Premier Mark McGowan announced an end to ‘commercial harvesting’ on 8 September 2021 under the smokescreen of climate change. Meanwhile, the Minister for the Environment has admitted there were no reports to demonstrate this link and the government’s alternative facts have been shown to be populist opinion.
Despite this lack of scientific evidence, Jackie Jarvis continues to spout the same talking points. The FPC has followed suit and mouthed the government line. Their actions are however very different.
Through all the anti-forestry propaganda the FPC’s operations in the native forest have maintained certification to the Sustainable Forest Management standard AS4708. FPC continues to hold this certification three years after we were told the operations weren’t sustainable.
Responsible Wood oversee the implementation of this standard and ensures independent auditors check FPC’s performance. By maintaining certification Stuart West and the FPC are confirming the results of the certification that there is sound scientific evidence that WA forests are being sustainably managed. If the FPC didn’t believe that was the case, they should have handed the certificate back in 2021.
Instead, the FPC has continued to have its forest harvesting audited in December 2021, February 2023 and August 2023 – confirming that they conform to AS 4708. This certification of sustainability continues until June 2025.
Under Standard 4708 sustainability needs to be based on science and includes maintaining, enhancing or restoring ecological processes; carbon, nutrient and water cycles; and the biodiversity of forest ecosystems. Forest Monitoring under the acclaimed Forestcheck program has shown this to be the case since the 1990’s.
It is clear the left and right side of government don’t know what the other is doing. Independent Auditors for Responsible Wood say the forests have been sustainably managed for timber production based on systematic assessment against defined criteria. Jackie Jarvis says they aren’t based on the politics.
In a bizarre twist Stuart West sits on the Board of Responsible Wood (surely a conflict of interest). He is precariously astride a barbed wire fence. As a Board member he is bound to support and uphold the integrity of the Sustainable Forest Management standard. As a vassal of the Minister, he has to publicly support her position.
This certification fiasco follows on Jackie Jarvis’s confession of being confused over the publication of forestry data, which she has subsequently confirmed will now remain hidden from public view. This lack of transparency and accountability is totally contrary to the requirements of AS 4708 and pledges of open government. As can been seen from the audit findings above the FPC does not deal with stakeholder complaints appropriately, another symptom of the secrecy surrounding the mismanagement of the forest industry.
Gavin Butcher is a former director of the WA Forest Products Commission.
