VicForests has decided to postpone achieving the FSC® Controlled Wood Standard by the end of 2020.

This decision is based off multiple restrictions impeding completing the assessment, including:

• COVID-19 restrictions on international auditors which impacted their ability to complete their in-field coupe assessments to satisfy the fieldwork component of the assessment. 
• remaining challenges arising from last summer’s bushfires.
• the legal issues regarding VicForests’ upcoming appeal against the Federal Court decision.
• concerns VicForests will not receive a fair assessment owing to FSC® Australia governance; this includes three directors of FSC® Australia who are leading public activism and advocacy, calling for the complete cessation of native forestry and actively seeking to discredit VicForests.
  • By way of background and in the interests of transparency please click on link here to correspondence on this matter

VicForests remains committed to demonstrating conformance to international standards for forest management certification.

This includes focusing our efforts on consolidating the significant changes that we have made by introducing and implementing adaptive harvest and regeneration management systems and ensuring there is a clear alignment with the current and emerging forest management frameworks.