Forestry Certification demonstrates the implementation of sustainable forest management practices, ensuring forests and plantations used for harvesting timber are healthy, renewable, and well managed. This sustainable forest management is achieved by monitoring the forest, tracing and labelling timber, wood and pulp products and non-timber forest products. The quality of forest management is judged against a series of agreed national standards.
In Australia, there are approximately 28 million hectares of forest certified. There are two major global forest certification bodies; the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), where 26.7 million hectares are under the Responsible Wood Certification Scheme and 1.2 million hectares are under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Both the PEFC and FSC have internationally recognised forest certification networks that provide recognition of regional and national standards that meet their criteria for sustainable forest management.
Wood and wood-based products sourced from certified forests can also be tracked (via labelling) through the supply chain using chain-of-custody certification provided by both forest certification schemes. This chain-of-custody certification provides consumers with an assurance that the wood product they are purchasing comes from a sustainably managed and certified forest.
This webinar explains each forestry management scheme, with an emphasis on what it means to design professionals and end-users. Two presenters Mark Leech from Brueckner Leech Consulting and Simon Angove from Timberlink will take us through the journey of forestry certification to the marketplace.
Speakers
Simon Angove | Group Sales Manager - CLT & GLT at Timberlink Australia I New Zealand
Simon has over 30 years of experience in the building and construction industry, working in both the corporate and private sectors. Simon has held senior positions within CSR Timber, CSR Construction Materials and Boral Aluminium, and Le Messurier Timber Company for over 10 years. During that time, he led the development of the engineered wood products category, delivering high-quality product solutions to the timber supply chain. Over the last 3 years, he has led the Timberlink engineered wood innovation strategy, preparing the successful business case that resulted in Timberlink establishing a combined CLT/GLT manufacturing operation in 2023.
Mark Leech | Owner at Brueckner Leech Consulting
Mark has been in the forest and wood products industry for over 40 years. His earlier years were spent in forest operations with a drive for innovation and improving sustainable outcomes. A passion for special timber and design was pursued as an artisan woodturner and gallery owner. He has been involved in farm forestry, represented on numerous design and forest-related boards and in private practice for 25 years. The focus of the last 15 years has been forest certification: sustainable forest management and chain of custody. Brueckner Leech, a three-person team, builds and manages certification systems from small family forests to large corporate estates, from artisans, sawmills, manufacturers to national forest product distribution.