Certified Group Scheme

Forest and tree growers may wish to have their forests certified as environmentally and responsibily well managed by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®). Certification of group schemes is possible whereby small growers can team together to have their collective forests certified to this internationally recognised scheme. Half a million hectares of plantations and forests in Australia have been certified to the FSC® standard. A map of existing member's forest management units is available to the public.

The advantages of forest management certification are that growers, processors, retailers and ultimately consumers are assured that the timber they use has come from well managed forests where the environmental and social issues have been properly considered. Certification is the main tool being used to combat illegal logging around the world. The Group's Commitment Policy is available to the public.

The advantages of a group scheme are that small growers can share the costs of certification and better economies of scale in management and marketing can be achieved. Marketing certified wood has advantages as more and more processors retailers and specifiers demand timber with the best environmental credentials.

Forest Strategy Group Scheme is certified by Soil Association Certification Limited (UK) and is offering membership in a group scheme for small forest growers in Australia. Any native forest or plantation type can be included in the group scheme.

The group has several members with sugar gum plantations or windbreaks. Better prices are offered for certified timbers harvested. The group has emerging markets for sawlogs, fencing timbers and firewood. The timber prices for these markets combined can be 75% higher than the prices for firewood alone.

Group scheme forests and plantations are managed to a tailored management plan that ensures environmental standards are met and social concerns of the neighbours and communities are considered. The Group Management Plan is available to the public. One of our social responsibilities is to adequately treat complaints. Our complaint procedure is here. We also monitor High Conservation Values and biodiversity in our forests and plantations. The public summary of the monitoring is here.

The Group also offers a Chain of Custody group membership for small businesses interested in marketing and selling certified forest products. The Group holds Chain of Custody certificates both for FSC® and PEFC.

If you want to have the performance of your forests and plantations tested against world class environmental standards and want to take advantage of the strong market demand for certified timber then contact us at the link below.

If you want to see our certificates, click on the logos above.