What is forest certification?

The concept of forest certification was devised in the early 1990’s as a means of reducing forest exploitation in developing countries. The aim is that certification gives consumers an assurance that wood products are sourced from sustainably managed forests.

To have a forest certified, independent third party auditors assess forest management practices against the required standard for certification.

Global forest certification bodies

The two major global forest certification bodies are:

• the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
• the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)

The FSC was founded in 1994 and has since then certified over 143 million hectares of forest in 81 countries (FSC 2011).

The PEFC is the world’s largest certification system with more than 232 million hectares of certified forests in 27 countries since it was founded in 1999 (PEFC 2011).

Forest Management certification

In Australia, forest managers can apply for forest management certification from one or both of the following schemes:

• Australian Forest Certification Scheme (AFCS) – which is recognised under the PEFC and is known as the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS)
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The Australian Government “supports all globally recognised forest certification schemes that provide for legal and sustainable forest management and believes that the choice of forest certification scheme is a decision for forest owners/managers” (DAFF, 2009).

Both certification schemes (AFCS and FSC) offer two types of certification:

• Forest management certification, and
• Chain of Custody certification.

To become certified, forest owners/growers are audited by an independent third-party which assesses management systems and inspects the forests to verify that they are being managed according to the requisite standards.

In Australia, over 10.6 million hectares of public native forests and public/private plantation forests is certified out of a potential 11.4 million hectares (AFS 2011b).

The AFSC certifies over 10 million hectares of Australian forest including native forests and plantations (AFS 2011a). Forests with AFS certification have been found to comply with the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management (AS 4708), based on international guidelines such as PEFC, UN, FAO, World Bank and the Montreal Process (AFS 2011b). AFSC auditing is carried out by JAS-ANZ accredited certification bodies (AFS 2011b).

FSC Australia certifies over 610,000 hectares of Australian forest, almost all plantations (FSC 2011). Forests with FSC certification have been inspected and comply with the internationally-agreed FSC 10 Principles of Responsible Forest Management. An FSC Australia National Standard is currently being drafted. FSC auditing is undertaken by FSC-accredited certification bodies (FSC 2010).