
https://www.treealliance.com.au/
Does anyone remember the Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) disaster of the 1990s?
It was the biggest corporate fraud in Australia’s history.
There was no Royal Commission and no one went to jail.
Billions of investor and taxpayer dollars disappeared, and thousands of Australian lives were ruined.
And the forest industry, which started the MIS schemes, refused to accept any responsibility for their actions!
It was a complete disaster!
And it had its beginnings in much the same way as the Tree Alliance is now starting off.
The forest industry has been very quiet the past 10 years as it has rebuilt from the ashes of the MIS disaster.
The MIS was a near-death experience for the forest industry. A few people made extraordinary wealth, but left the industry a smoking ruin.
Below is a list of those who support the Tree Alliance:
Supporters of the Tree Alliance:
The Tree Alliance aims to bring together a range of organisations to collaborate to achieve the tree planting and communication objectives. Current supporters include:
- Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association
- Tasmanian Agricultural Productivity Group
- Tasmanian Timber
- Tasmanian Forests and Forests Product Network
- We Act
- Climate Friendly
- The Centre For Sustainable Architecture With Wood (University of Tasmania)
- CSIRO
- NRM South
Note that the above list contains no sawmillers, wood processors, log merchants, exporters, or retailers. No one in the real forest industry supports the Tree Alliance!
Does that make you suspicious?
It should!!!
I wander through the Tree Alliance website and I see history repeating itself.
I see the forest industry (or at least public servants, scientists, NGOs and politicians) big-talking! Lots of promises and potential, just like the start of the MIS disaster.
BEWARE!
As I tell all my clients and those who make enquiries about growing blackwood:
“No one wants you to grow trees for future wood production!”
The real forest industry (including the marketplace) has not the slightest interest in your tree-growing dreams!
I get phone calls and hear stories of people who are bulldozing their trees they once planted and can now find no markets for!!
The Tree Alliance has all the features, promises and rhetoric of a giant fraud, just like the Managed Investment Scheme disaster.
BEWARE!
I support a real forest industry! New Zealand has a real forest industry; Australia does not!
In New Zealand the forest industry talks about prices, costs, supply, demand, markets, etc.; all those things that farmers understand and deal with every single day.
No one in the forest industry in Australia talks about such matters!
Looking at the Tree Alliance is like watching Dorothy and the Tin Man skipping down the Yellow Brick Road.
BEWARE!
Until the real forest industry (including the wider marketplace) WANTS a future I would steer clear of any hyper-marketing “forest industry” b***shit.
Cheers!
FSC Standard – Economically Viable
I just thought I’d rave a bit more about the ridiculous FSC Standard for Economically Viable.
Clearly the FSC is completely confused and conflicted about whether forestry is welfare or commerce, or is it money laundering?
So far I have found two different definitions of what the FSC means by Economically Viable. The first example comes from FSC UK:
Economically Viable
Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be sufficiently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resource, the ecosystem, or affected communities. The tension between the need to generate adequate financial returns and the principles of responsible forest operations can be reduced through efforts to market the full range of forest products and services for their best value.
https://www.fsc-uk.org/en-uk/about-fsc/what-is-fsc/our-mission-and-vision
The second example comes from FSC Australia:
Economically Viable
The FSC certification standard requires that a forest management entity have sufficient financial resources to manage the defined forest area in conformance with the full scope of the standard. The standard does not require that the certified forest is managed at a profit provided that other sources of working capital are available and sufficient to enable management in conformance with the standard.
https://www.scsglobalservices.com/news/scs-responds-to-questions-about-the-forestry-tasmania-fsc-forest-management-assessment
Both these examples demonstrate that no one at the FSC has ever studied Economics 101 – basic economic theory and principles.
So let’s discuss the FSC UK definition first:
Of the two definitions it’s the one I like the most; not perfect but at least heading in the right direction. Clearly the UK believes that forestry (growing trees for wood production) is a business, not welfare or money laundering. But the wording could be improved and simplified.
So here is my edit of the UK definition:
Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be profitable. Any subsidies to the forest grower must be available equally to all forest growers within the same jurisdiction.
The rest of the words are pointless. If the forest management is Environmentally Appropriate, Socially Beneficial but it is not profitable then presumably the forest owner would not harvest any trees, ie. No need to seek FSC certification.
If the forest management meets all three Standards, then there is no need to reiterate the environmental and social standards within the economic standard as the UK definition has done. It is superfluous text!
Meet all three Standards = Achieve FSC Certification!
What is “sufficiently” profitable is a decision for the forest owner to make, based on available markets, etc..
If the forest owner is subsidised to manage the forest for wood production (which may be the case in some countries), then the FSC must ensure that all forest owners within that same jurisdiction have equal access to the same subsidies, ie. The FSC has a duty to uphold the principles of competitive neutrality within the forest industry, and not advantage one forest grower over another.
https://blackwoodgrowers.com.au/2016/10/17/competitive-neutrality-in-forestry/
Which leads me nicely to the Australian definition of Economically Viable.
The Australian definition of Economically Viable could be taken to be supportive of money laundering in the forest industry.
Within the Australian definition no profitability is required.
Any amount of money from any source (eg. Criminal activity) can be used to subsidise forest management, achieve economic viability and hence achieve FSC Certification.
In Tasmania that equates to robbing taxpayers to pay sawmillers.
If that definition does not open the gates to corruption and criminal activity I don’t know what would!
I would love to meet the economist that signed off on that definition of “economically viable”! A very “creative” economist indeed!!
Never mind the fact that the FSC supports both of the above contradictory Standards!!
If I was a farmer wanting to diversify my income and plant trees for wood production what would I think of the above Standards?
Would I be supportive of the FSC?
If I was a Tasmanian concerned about the continuing plunder of our public native forests, what would I think of the FSC? Would I have any confidence in Third Party Forest Certification?
I think the FSC has a long way to go to achieve any credibility.
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Posted in Commentary, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Tagged Economically Viable, Forest Stewardship Council