VicForests is no longer eligible for membership of the Forest Stewardship Council of Australia because it has failed to achieve Controlled Wood Standard within the required time. Source: Timberbiz
However, this does not mean that Vicforests will be denied Controlled Wood Standard accreditation in the future. VicForests’ CEO Monique Dawson said that to retain FSC membership accreditation needed to be achieved with “a reasonable time”.
She had been told that was two years, and Vicforests had been outside that limit for some time. She said FSC had been “a bit uncomfortable” with the situation for time. But Ms Dawson said she doubted any organisation had been able to achieve accreditation within the tw-year timeframe.
“We think we are pretty close to being accredited,” she said. “One of the challenges with full forest stewardship is that we are not the ones that manage the forest. That’s the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
“In the meantime, we are continuing to go hard at it.”
The FSC said it would welcome an application from VicForests when it could satisfy the current membership requirement and has strongly urged VicForests to continue its pursuit of the Controlled Wood Standard.
The Controlled Wood Standard is considered by VicForests to be an important step in achieving full forest certification through FSC.
VicForests is already certified by the Responsible Wood Standard which is the largest such system in the world, and it has maintained this status since 2007.
