Understanding Australia's world-leading certified forestry systems

What is sustainable forest management and why does it matter for hardwoods?

Sustainable forest management is independently verified by a technically competent third-party organization that confirms a forest is managed sustainably according to best practices and national or international standards. This isn't just someone claiming to be environmentally responsible—it's a rigorous, independently audited process.

When you choose hardwoods certified as "Responsible Wood," "PEFC," or "FSC," it means that forest has been thoroughly assessed by competent, independent auditors who have examined the company's management systems, harvesting practices, sustainable yield calculations, soil and water management, and biodiversity protection. They've verified that the organization complies with comprehensive standards and is genuinely doing a good job.

At Durable Hardwoods, we're committed to sourcing from these certified forests, ensuring our Australian hardwood species come from responsibly managed sources.

What forest certification schemes operate in Australia?

Three main certification schemes operate in Australia:

1. Responsible Wood: An accredited standards development organization licensed by Standards Australia. They write the sustainable forest management and chain of custody standards for Australia and New Zealand, and operate a certification program allowing forests to be certified against these standards.
2. PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification): An international mutual recognition program. Responsible Wood is recognized by PEFC, which allows forest management schemes from different countries to be considered equivalent. This means Australian PEFC-certified hardwood exports are recognized as equivalent to locally grown timber in markets like the United States.
3. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council): Another major global certification scheme that operates internationally.

Australia's Hardwood Certification Leadership

How much of Australia's hardwood forest is certified?
Australia has an incredibly positive sustainability story, particularly for hardwood species. We have 17 million hectares of certified forest—over 90%, probably around 95%, of production forests are independently verified as sustainably and well-managed.

• This is remarkable when you consider that globally, only about 10% of forests are certified. Australia punches way above its weight in forest certification. At Durable Hardwoods, virtually all the Australian hardwood species on our shelves—blackbutt, spotted gum, ironbark, and others—originate from sustainably managed forests, whether or not they carry specific certification labels. No other country in the world even approaches this proportion or level of certification.

Why is forest certification important for hardwood buyers?

Certification serves several critical purposes when sourcing quality hardwoods:

• Environmental stewardship and social license: Many people question forestry practices. Through certification, we can demonstrate that Australian hardwood forests are actually well managed and shouldn't be compared with practices in some overseas countries where genuine environmental damage sometimes occurs. Our hardwood forests are managed particularly well, ensuring species like spotted gum, blackbutt, and ironbark will be available for generations.`
• Product differentiation: Certification allows Durable Hardwoods to promote our hardwood products as different and better than alternatives on the market, particularly imported species.
• Verification of origin: Through chain of custody, you can verify where your hardwoods come from. The Responsible Wood label, for example, is only available to products grown in Australian certified forests that go through a chain of custody system identifying them as Australian-grown and made. This is particularly important for premium hardwood projects.
• Improved market access: The Green Building Council only recognizes certified products on their job sites, which is significant in the commercial market where hardwoods are often specified. Without certification, accessing certain markets becomes much more difficult.
• International trade: When exporting hardwood products, especially where there are sustainability expectations, certification allows you to make credible claims about providing environmentally responsible Australian hardwoods.

What does Responsible Wood certification guarantee for hardwoods?

Responsible Wood certification identifies hardwood products as:

• Originating from sustainably managed Australian hardwood forests
• 100% legal origin (recognized under the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act)
• Traceable through the supply chain with verified claims
• Independently audited at every stage

Both sustainable forest management systems and chain of custody undergo regular audits, ensuring everything is verified with checks and balances in place. This is particularly important for slow-growing hardwood species that require long-term sustainable management.

Sustainability Standards and Requirements

What standards govern sustainable hardwood forest management in Australia?
The Australian/New Zealand standard AS/NZS 4708 is the primary standard. This comprehensive standard is based on the Montreal Process—a United Nations meeting where participants determined what must be monitored, measured, and verified for a forest ecosystem to be considered sustainable.

The standard includes approximately 220 sustainability indicators that must be monitored and audited. All major certification schemes (Responsible Wood, PEFC, and FSC) are based on the Montreal protocols. These rigorous requirements are especially important for hardwood forests, which take longer to mature than softwood plantations.

What specific criteria must be met for hardwood forest certification?

Certified hardwood forests must meet rigorous requirements:

• Maintain or enhance biodiversity: Protect biodiversity in hardwood ecosystems, with special protections for rare and endangered species that are identified and monitored. Australian hardwood forests support unique wildlife that must be protected.
• Maintain or enhance productive capacity: You cannot take more hardwood trees from the forest than it has the capacity to grow. Given that hardwoods like spotted gum and ironbark take decades to mature, this sustainable yield calculation is critical for long-term supply.
• Maintain or enhance forest ecosystem health: Manage pests, diseases, and invasive species (like blackberries) that threaten hardwood forests. Keep these threats out of the forest and under control.
• Maintain or enhance soil and water resources: Minimize soil disturbance during hardwood harvesting. Most importantly, ensure soil doesn't enter watercourses and cause pollution. Properly manage oils and lubricants from graders, tractors, and other equipment.
• Maintain or enhance forest carbon stock: Ensure the hardwood forest's capacity to take carbon from the air and convert it to wood is not impeded. Hardwoods are particularly effective carbon stores due to their density and longevity.
• Maintain and respect cultural values: Recognize and respect the cultural values of Indigenous Australians and all Australians associated with hardwood forestry. Many hardwood species have deep cultural significance that must be identified and maintained.
• Maintain or enhance social and economic benefits: Provide local jobs—hardwood forestry provides many good, long-term, well-paying jobs in remote and rural areas where such employment is hard to find. Forest managers must provide employment opportunities and education to staff.
• Engage with stakeholders: If someone wants to discuss hardwood forest management, especially if they have concerns, engage with them respectfully. Understand their expectations and, when those expectations are fair and reasonable, incorporate them into forest management practices.
• Apply systematic management: Maintain documentation, procedures, and plans for hardwood harvest cycles, all subject to audit processes.

Does certification apply to both native hardwood forests and hardwood plantations?

• Yes! Both native hardwood forests and hardwood plantation forestry can be certified under the Australian Standard, and they have exactly the same requirements. Whether it's native spotted gum and blackbutt forests or plantation hardwoods, the sustainability standards are equally rigorous.
• This is particularly important because hardwoods take longer to reach maturity than softwoods, making sustainable management even more critical for ensuring long-term supply.

• Sustainable forest management ensures hardwood forests regenerate, recover, and thrive long-term. For example, ash forests in Tasmania require clear-felling and controlled burning for healthy regeneration—the burning germinates the seeds. While media images might show harvested areas looking bare, those same locations five years later show healthy, dense regrowth. After 15 years, you'd barely know the area had been harvested.
• This is what sustainable forest management is all about: ensuring hardwood forests regenerate long-term, biodiversity is protected, and all the values society treasures are maintained. This long-term view is essential for slow-growing hardwood species.

Audits and Accreditation

Who conducts the audits and how qualified are they?

Auditors must be accredited by JAS-ANZ (Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand), a semi-government body established to accredit auditors in Australia and New Zealand.

JAS-ANZ ensures auditors are:

• Technically competent in assessing hardwood forest management
• Unbiased in their assessments
• Free from misconduct
• Capable of performing their duties to high standards

Only accredited certification bodies are allowed to conduct audits in the Responsible Wood and PEFC systems. This provides an extra layer of assurance that hardwood forest audits are conducted professionally and thoroughly.

Chain of Custody for Hardwoods

What is chain of custody and why does it matter for hardwood products?
Chain of custody (governed by AS 4707) allows Durable Hardwoods to trace timber from a certified hardwood forest to our customers. You know where your blackbutt, spotted gum, or ironbark comes from, understand its certified status, and can promote the fact that material is from a sustainably managed Australian hardwood forest.

It's also a mechanism for checking the basic credentials of any other wood in the supply chain, enabling due diligence processes. At Durable Hardwoods, we maintain chain of custody for our certified products and conduct due diligence on all our hardwood species to ensure they meet basic sustainability principles.

Why is controlled source material important for hardwood suppliers?

Controlled source is recognized under the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act as a legality verification mechanism. Even for hardwood products that aren't formally certified, Durable Hardwoods can verify that they're not from dodgy or controversial sources—we've done the due diligence, verified they meet basic sustainability principles, and confirmed they're 100% legal.

This is particularly important given the premium nature and long growth cycles of hardwood species.

How does chain of custody work for hardwood products?

Each link in the supply chain—from hardwood forest through sawmilling to Durable Hardwoods' warehouse and finally to you—needs chain of custody certification. This creates an unbroken chain allowing us to place labels on finished hardwood products stating they come from sustainably managed forests.

The process involves several steps:

Step 1 - Material identification: All hardwoods entering Durable Hardwoods are identified and classified. We determine which species are certified (identified in our databases with pack numbers), which are uncertified, and maintain clear records.

Step 2 - Due diligence for uncertified materials: Non-certified hardwood materials undergo due diligence checks to verify they're not associated with controversial sources.

What makes hardwood timber "controversial" under due diligence?

At Durable Hardwoods, we screen all products to ensure they're not associated with:

• Illegality: All hardwood timber must be legally sourced
• Forest abuse: Harvest rates must not exceed sustainable yields (critical for slow-growing hardwoods)
• Biodiversity failure: Hardwood forests must maintain biodiversity and protect ecologically important areas
• Forest conversion: Not from forests cut down for oil palm or agricultural conversion
• Workers' rights violations: Workers' rights must be respected throughout the hardwood supply chain
• Indigenous peoples' rights violations: Indigenous rights must be honoured, particularly important for native hardwood forests
• Conflict timber: Timber traded by armed gangs (currently includes timber from Russia and Belarus)
• Genetically modified organisms: While no commercially available GMO hardwoods currently exist, this would be considered controversial

Critical note: If illegal hardwood is identified, we will not put it on the market. Under the federal Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, selling illegal wood can result in two years in prison. Our chain of custody provides processes to identify and exclude illegal materials, protecting both our customers and our business.

How can certified and controlled source hardwoods be mixed?

Durable Hardwoods can mix certified and controlled source hardwood materials to make percentage claims:

• To put a label on a hardwood product, it must contain minimum 70% certified content
• We can use a "credit account" system where certified hardwood volumes are banked, then credits are assigned when products are sold
• All processes are transparent, well-documented, and auditable

What claims can Durable Hardwoods make on hardwood products?

• Formal certified claims: "X% Responsible Wood PEFC Certified" on documentation, identifying hardwood products from sustainably managed Australian forests.
• Controlled source claims: Identifies hardwood materials as non-controversial and passing due diligence processes.
• Labelling requirements: Hardwood products need 70% certified content minimum to carry certification labels.

International Recognition for Australian Hardwoods

How does PEFC recognition benefit Australian hardwood exports?

PEFC operates in about 55 countries with global mutual recognition in place. All of Australia's major trading partners are PEFC certified. Having the Responsible Wood Australia/New Zealand scheme recognized by PEFC:

• Helps with global hardwood trade
• Allows Australian hardwood exports (like spotted gum decking) to be recognized as equivalent to locally-grown timber in overseas markets
• Demonstrates that Australian hardwoods meet international sustainability standards
• Helps identify imported hardwood products from overseas that also come from well-managed forests

This is particularly valuable for premium Australian hardwood species that command higher prices in international markets.

Certification Marks and Labels

What do the certification marks mean for Durable Hardwoods customers?

• Certification marks identify hardwood products from well-managed, sustainable Australian forests. When Durable Hardwoods carries Responsible Wood certified hardwoods, we can place both the Responsible Wood and PEFC labels on any product with above 70% certified content.
  
• The Responsible Wood label is an ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) approved certification mark. During the approval process, the ACCC vetted the standards, rules, and audit processes for issues like greenwashing, ensuring any claims associated with the label are factual and can withstand scrutiny. This makes it quite powerful for premium hardwood products.

Can Durable Hardwoods use certification marks for promotion?

Yes! Durable Hardwoods can apply to Responsible Wood for a "promotional label." Even for products not carrying the formal certification label, if we stock and carry PEFC certified hardwood products, we can promote our support of sustainability in our advertising, banners, and website.

Promotional labels can be used in marketing materials, though formal product labels (placed directly on hardwood products) require 70% certified content and chain of custody certification.

What makes Responsible Wood special for Australian hardwoods?

Responsible Wood identifies hardwood products as both:

• Sustainably grown/made: From sustainably managed Australian hardwood forests
• Australian made: Locally produced from local forests

Anything with a Responsible Wood label from Durable Hardwoods is locally produced from sustainably managed Australian hardwood forests—a powerful combination that differentiates our species like blackbutt, spotted gum, and ironbark from imported alternatives.

Real-World Hardwood Applications

What kinds of projects use certified hardwoods from Durable Hardwoods?

Certified Australian hardwoods appear in diverse premium applications:

• Residential construction: Houses showcasing the beauty of certified Australian native hardwood species
• Decking projects: Durable, sustainable hardwoods like spotted gum and blackbutt that are Australian-grown and made
• Commercial projects: High-end commercial fitouts using certified Australian hardwoods
• Religious buildings: Churches built with high-quality appearance-grade blackbutt from sustainably managed forests
• Green Building Council projects: Projects requiring timber credits to achieve ratings, often specifying premium hardwood species

At Durable Hardwoods, we supply certified species for projects where quality, durability, and sustainability all matter.

Green Building Council Requirements

Why does Green Building Council certification matter for hardwood projects?

The Green Building Council recognizes the Australian standard at a very high level, allowing certified hardwood products from Durable Hardwoods to go into Green Building Council-rated projects. Currently, the timber credit is optional—projects don't have to claim it if they choose not to.

Critical upcoming change: Future versions of the Green Star rating system will make certification mandatory. Any product containing greater than 20% wood fiber can only be used on Green Building Council projects if it has chain of custody certification.

For hardwood decking, structural timber, and architectural applications in commercial projects, certification is essential. Durable Hardwoods is ready to supply certified hardwoods for these projects.

Carbon and Future Developments

Are carbon capture and storage being addressed for hardwoods?

Absolutely, and this is particularly significant for hardwoods. The sustainable forest management standard already includes requirements around maintaining or enhancing carbon storage. Dense hardwood species like ironbark and spotted gum are exceptional long-term carbon stores, both in the living forest and in finished products.

More significantly, PEFC is working on a standard to recognize biogenic carbon in forest products and pass that information through the supply chain. This will allow Durable Hardwoods to make not only sustainability claims but carbon claims as well on our hardwood products.

While this work is in fairly early stages, it's expected to progress quickly because the market needs it. Looking ahead, projects may one day be legally required to report on carbon storage—and that's where durable Australian hardwoods will really shine, given their density and longevity in service.

The Durable Hardwoods Commitment

Why choose Durable Hardwoods for sustainably sourced hardwoods?

Australia is a world leader in sustainable hardwood forest management. Our forestry industry loves what it does—foresters enter the profession because they love the land, and forest degradation is the last thing they want to see happen.

With 95% of production forests independently certified, comprehensive standards with 220 sustainability indicators, and rigorous independent auditing, Australian hardwoods represent some of the most responsibly managed forest products in the world.

At Durable Hardwoods, we're proud to supply premium Australian hardwood species—blackbutt, spotted gum, ironbark, and others—from these sustainably managed forests. When you choose Durable Hardwoods, you're supporting an industry that genuinely cares for the environment while providing essential products and rural employment, and you're getting beautiful, durable hardwoods that will last for generations.

How can I verify the sustainability credentials of my hardwood purchase?

At Durable Hardwoods, we maintain comprehensive records for all our products:

Contact our team to discuss the specific sustainability credentials of any hardwood species you're considering. We're always happy to provide documentation and answer questions about where your hardwoods come from and how they're managed.