According to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) the logging standard is cost effective and that Senator David Leyonhjelm has a head-in-the-sand outlook. Source: The Australian Financial Review
Adam Beaumont of the Forest Stewardship Council submitted an opinion piece to the Australian Financial Review.
In it he said that contrary to claims by senator David Leyonhjelm that Illegal logging shows how activists can harness state power, Australia’s 16,000 timber importers will make a significant difference in the global effort to end illegal logging and his head-in-the-sand mentality is the exact attitude the government’s Illegal Logging Prohibition Act has been introduced to combat.
Mr Beaumont said concerns about the financial and regulatory cost of compliance with the 102-page act have already been addressed by the Department of Agriculture’s 25th August 2015 endorsement of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification, which provides a simple, cost-effective and independent standard for minimising supply-chain risks with forest products around the world.
He said that under the legislation, timber importers will be required to prove that their timber has been legally sourced – a rational, unexceptional request by the Australian government made easier by its endorsement of FSC, whose stringent auditing process and green tree tick logo has become the voluntary seal of approval for forest managers, manufacturers and importers alike.
Mr Beaumont said the Australian forestry industry are key members and supporters of the FSC and labelling the organisation as anything other than a democratic is simply untrue.
FSC is comprised of a variety of equally weighted members representing three chambers – economic, environmental and social – each with equal voting rights.
Mr Beaumont sadi that very FSC standards that Australian forest managers are independently assessed against are currently open for feedback and he encouraged all Australians, especially timber manufacturers and importers, to have their say on the future of forest harvesting and conservation.
The claim that Chain of Custody (CoC) certification is a “myth” is a misinterpretation. He said that clearly no certification scheme could guarantee 100% protection from risks.
FSC CoC is just one step amongst many in the multitude of challenges inherent in any auditing framework, as is the need to continually innovate and improve.
“So don’t be blinded by bully politics. Changing the culture of an age-old practice is difficult, but we’d be nowhere if we didn’t start somewhere,” he said.
