Sustainable Timbers Tasmania fails FSC audit again!
After being audited in May 2019, and the audit report being finalised in February this year, Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT) this week were finally courageous enough to publically announce that it had once again failed FSC certification.
No one seems at all surprised!
It has been more than 10 years since STT promised to gain FSC certification.
That’s 10 years of failure!
With Bunnings Hardware promising to only sell FSC certified products after 31st December 2020, the future for STT is not looking good. Bunnings is the largest retailer of Tasmanian oak products from Tasmania’s public native forests.
On 1st July this year Bunnings announced they would no longer sell public native forest products from Vicforests.
The long, slow, bitter, costly road to oblivion for public native welfare forestry in Australia is entering its final phase.
Meanwhile instead of questioning its own failings, or plotting a new course for the future, the forest industry is now waging an all out publicity war on anyone it regards as an enemy, including the FSC and Bunnings.
The culture within the forest industry has become neurotic and hostile.
How the forest industry responds and behaves in this final closing down of public native forestry in Australia will impact the greater industry for decades to come.
If the industry continues its current hostile virulent campaign then the brand/industry damage will be severe indeed.
The private forestry sector in Australia is already starved of oxygen in attempting to generate a positive image and message to the marketplace and the community.
A few more years of negative hostile publicity will alienate more of the marketplace and the community, and further isolate the forest industry.
The Australian forest industry desperately needs to improve its support within the broader community. Right now the opposite is happening.
Will the private forestry sector remain silent as its future is destroyed in this battle?
- By the way this article had no impact whatsoever on the FSC audit:
Apparently the FSC is perfectly happy supporting fraudulent behaviour in the forest industry.