Well, today the decision by The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to not give certification to VicForests became publicly available.

As usual, VicForests is spinning like crazy. Reading this (from their website) it seems that the fires, Covid and legal action are to blame.

Reading the actual report by the FSC, and it appears that investigations were wrapped up in November 2019. Before all those events.

The result was, no certification for you. (FME = Forest Management Enterprise)

Here some curated highlights from the report. First part: the investigation.

This is a horror story from Swing Mid coupe. It has all the elements: a dozer overturning, fire escaping out of control, leading to damage to Leadbeaters Possum habitat.

SPZ: Special Protection Zone

This is about Castella Quarry coupe. It has all the elements. A threatened species of fish, Barred Galaxia, not found by VicForests. A third party detected it. Then, roadworks after harvesting led to boulders damaging the stream.

Little Jacqui coupe. Apparently logged outside the Allocation Order. Also, little regeneration after 4 years - only bracken.

Banana Man. A coupe so large it apparently breached VicForests' own Code of Practice. Also, something terrible about an escaped coupe burn destroying both retained vegetation and an historic tramline.

Old growth or not old growth? Probably not, according to VicForests. FSC auditors were concerned about the Old Growth status of several coupes logged, such as Spotty.

ENGO: Environmental Non-Governmental Organisation
HCV: High Conservation Value area

So, second part. What did the auditors conclude?

Try harder with stakeholder engagement, VicForests

Interestingly, they found that areas logged outside the Allocation Order were done legally, but there was an inherent lack of clarity about the process.

Also, try to complete investigations of breaches quicker. Better still, don't commit them.

No surprise here. Do better at finding Leadbeaters Possums and Greater Gliders. And protecting them.

Major side eye at how VicForests assess the status of forest as old growth. Use independent experts!

And that's that for now.