Sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management means a technically competent, independent third party has verified that a forest is managed to best practice and to national or international standards. It is an audited process, not a self-declared claim. Auditors examine the forest manager's systems, harvesting practices, sustainable yield calculations, soil and water management and biodiversity protection.
Both native forests and plantations can be certified under the Australian standard, with the same requirements. Well-managed harvested areas regenerate. Some forest types, such as Tasmanian ash forests, need harvesting and controlled burning to germinate seed and regrow.
What a certified forest must do
- Biodiversity: maintain or enhance it, and identify and protect rare and endangered species.
- Productive capacity: never harvest more than the forest can grow. This matters for slow-growing hardwoods.
- Ecosystem health: manage pests, diseases and weeds.
- Soil and water: minimise soil disturbance, keep soil out of watercourses and manage fuels and oils from machinery.
- Carbon: maintain the forest's capacity to take carbon from the air.
- Cultural values: recognise and respect the values of Indigenous Australians and all Australians.
- Social and economic benefits: provide jobs and training, often in regional areas.
- Stakeholders: engage respectfully with people who raise concerns.
- Systematic management: keep documented plans and procedures, all subject to audit.
Certification schemes in Australia
- Responsible Wood: an accredited standards development organisation that writes the Australian and New Zealand standards for sustainable forest management and chain of custody, and runs a certification program against them. Its label applies to products from Australian certified forests.
- PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification): an international mutual-recognition program. Responsible Wood is recognised by PEFC, so certified Australian timber is treated as equivalent in other PEFC markets.
- FSC (Forest Stewardship Council): another major international certification scheme.
All three are based on the Montreal Process criteria for what must be monitored, measured and verified for a forest to be considered sustainable.
Standards and audits
- AS/NZS 4708 is the main standard for sustainable forest management in Australia and New Zealand. It includes around 220 sustainability indicators that must be monitored and audited.
- AS 4707 is the chain of custody standard for tracking certified timber through the supply chain.
- JAS-ANZ (Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand) accredits the auditors, checking they are technically competent, unbiased and free from misconduct. Only accredited certification bodies can audit in the Responsible Wood and PEFC systems.
How supply-chain tracking and labelling work
Chain of custody is the system that tracks certified timber from the forest, through sawmilling and each business that handles it, to the end user. In general terms:
- Every business in the chain that wants to pass on a certified claim needs its own chain of custody certification and audits.
- Incoming material is identified and recorded as certified or uncertified.
- Uncertified material goes through due diligence to confirm it isn't from controversial sources.
- Under the Responsible Wood and PEFC rules, a product needs at least 70% certified content to carry a certification label.
The Responsible Wood label is a certification mark approved by the ACCC, which vetted its rules and audits for greenwashing. When a product carries a label, ask the business that sold it for its own certificate and documents.
Legality and due diligence
Under the federal Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, selling illegally logged timber is an offence with serious penalties. Due diligence screens timber that isn't certified for links to:
- illegal harvesting
- harvest rates above sustainable yields
- loss of biodiversity or ecologically important areas
- forests cleared for conversion to other land uses
- abuse of workers' rights or Indigenous peoples' rights
- conflict timber traded by armed groups
- genetically modified trees
Green building projects
The Green Building Council of Australia recognises the Australian forest management standard, so certified timber can contribute to Green Star-rated projects. If your project is targeting a timber credit, check the current Green Star requirements early and ask your supplier which documents they can provide for that credit.
Read about timber's carbon and lifecycle benefits in the environmental case for wood.
Our approach to provenance
We are committed to sourcing from certified, sustainably managed forests where available, and we prioritise Australian timber, applying the same standards when we source internationally. We carry out legality due diligence on the timber we supply.
On request, we can provide the documents a project or audit typically needs:
- Provenance records showing where the timber came from
- Species verification
- Treatment certificates
- Grading stamps
Our business policies, including environmental, procurement and modern slavery policies, are listed on our commitment to the community. For council and government work, see government and councils.
