Sustainable Forestry
Approximately 0.2% of Victoria's State forest is available for harvesting each year, allocated after the State's sustainability and biodiversity assessment.
This allows for sufficient high-conservation areas to be protected, for no more than one-fifth of our public forests ever to be harvested, and for significant time to pass between final harvests of the allocated areas.
About 30 years after harvest, 'thinning' is carried out in the harvested coupe, to selectively remove inferior trees and allow the better trees in the stand to attain their full value.
We draw on the latest silviculture research and employ staff with practical experience to replant and regenerate the harvested forest coupes. We use a range of different silvicultural treatments, appropriate to different forest types, to ensure that the best possible regeneration results are achieved.
After completing our harvesting and regeneration operations, we return the land to the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). DSE assess the regeneration prior to hand back and any coupes found not to have regenerated satisfactorily are not accepted.
VicForests is certified to the Australian Forestry Standard, providing international recognition of the sustainability of our commercial harvesting activities.
Audits under the Code of Practice for Timber Production continually monitor our harvesting and regeneration operations.
As part of this commitment, our Sustainable Forest Management Policy is regularly reviewed to ensure continually improving processes. We report on our activities through our Annual Report and our Sustainability Report, both produced at the end of each financial year.