Over 90% of commercial production forests in Australia are certified under the Australian Forestry Standard / Responsible Wood certification program.

This program has ensured that the Australian Forest Products sector can demonstrate its sustainability credentials. It is the strength and credibility of the JASANZ accreditation process that has delivered the transparency and trust in the certification processes necessary for global recognition and acceptance of Australian forest products.

The client

Responsible Wood (RW)

The problem/goal

Global supply chains are increasingly demanding evidence that forest products originate from sustainably managed forests. This is further exacerbated by National and Regional (EU) regulations that require verifiable evidence that forest products have been legally harvested. It is no longer a case that a supplier can make a “first party” claim of sustainability with supply chains demanding a higher level of confidence and transparency. Many major brands now completely exclude forest products where sustainability cannot be demonstrated, for example Bunnings, and forest growers and processors need effective and credible tools and systems to satisfy these requirements. Quite simply, not being able to demonstrate sustainability and responsible forest management excludes suppliers from substantial proportions of the market potentially resulting in failure of a business.

The solution

The pressing need was identified in the early 2000’s to develop credible Standards and independent certification systems to support these Standards to enable continued market access. This led to the development of the Australian Standards for sustainable forest management and chain of custody to provide transparency and to verify products originate from sustainably managed forests. Once the Standards had been developed, the question of credibility of a suppliers first party claim became of crucial importance. This led to the development of the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) Certification System, later renamed Responsible Wood.

The outcome

With the development of the AFS/RW certification scheme, the existing certification/accreditation technical infrastructure was tapped into. This included a number of local accredited certification bodies and JASANZ. The credibility of the JASANZ accreditation program is beyond repute, and this has provided the AFS/RW certification scheme with the confidence necessary to be accepted by local and global markets. The JASANZ accredited forestry schemes relating to the AFS/RW certification scheme are the: Responsible Wood Chain of Custody Scheme; Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Chain of Custody Scheme; and the Forest Management Systems Scheme.Quite simply, JASANZ accreditation has delivered the validation of technical competence, credibility, transparency that ensures the ongoing and continued success of the Australian forest products sector. Without the AFS/RW certification program and the JASANZ accreditation underpinning its credibility, national and global markets opportunities would be greatly restricted, and the Australian forest products sector would be significantly disadvantaged.