Responsible Wood Joins ACT Forestry Australia Field Trip
Responsible Wood Chair, Dr Tony Bartlett, and Sustainability Manager, Matt de Jongh, recently joined the ACT Branch of Forestry Australia on a field trip exploring carbon farming and forest certification. The event provided a valuable opportunity for Forestry Australia members and some ANU students to discuss sustainable forest management, carbon sequestration, and the role of certification in ensuring long-term environmental and economic benefits.
As climate action and carbon markets are key discussion topics that will undoubtedly shape the future of forestry as we know it, initiatives like this are important in demonstrating how certified forest management aligns with carbon farming opportunities. The field trip brought together forestry professionals, land managers, and other professionals to examine practical approaches to integrating forestry with carbon sequestration strategies.
The Role of Certification in Carbon Farming
Forest certification, particularly under Responsible Wood and PEFC standards, provides a framework for verifying sustainable management practices, ensuring that forests actively contribute to carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and responsible land use.
“Certified forests are an essential part of the carbon solution,” said Matt. “They not only sequester carbon but also ensure that this resource is managed responsibly for future generations.”
The Responsible Wood Certification Scheme is built on a fit for purpose Australian Standard ensuring that Australia’s forests, and all products sourced from them, are among the most sustainable in the world. The Standard AS/NZS 4708-2021 is based on international criteria and indicators, supported by science and is socially just, ecologically sound and economically viable.
The Standard AS/NZS 4708:2021 goes beyond sustainable harvesting, it includes climate-positive practices that require certified forest managers to maintain or enhance the capacity of their Defined Forest Area (DFA) to store and sequester carbon over the medium and long term. This requires having a scientifically justified estimate of both current and future carbon storage levels within the DFA. This requirement ensures that forests continue to act as carbon sinks, aligning with broader sustainability and climate goals while allowing flexibility for practical forest management needs.
This is required by section 11.1.1 in AS/NZS 4708:2021 under Sustainability Objective 1: Maintain or appropriately enhance forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle.
Responsible Wood’s Forest Management Standard also reinforces climate-positive forestry, requiring certified managers to:
- Minimise anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions
- Consider the impacts of climate change on forests and management practices
- Implement strategies to enhance forest resilience and adaptation.
Sustainable Forest Management: More Than Just Carbon
While carbon sequestration was a major focus for the field trip, the discussions also highlighted that forest certification ensures sustainability beyond carbon management. Certified forests support biodiversity, water quality, and community engagement, ensuring that carbon farming initiatives don’t come at the expense of broader environmental and social values.
“Sustainability and certification go hand in hand,” added Matt. “This field trip was a great opportunity to discuss how Responsible Wood certification can interact with carbon farming, ensuring forests remain productive.”
Discussions were also held on how the two international schemes of forest certification contribute to ensuring consumer confidence that they are buying timber products sourced from sustainably managed forests. The Responsible Wood Chair was able to explain how recent independent analysis of both the Australian Forestry Standard and the FSC Australian Standard demonstrated that both schemes had much in common and were both highly credible schemes.
“Having an independent comparative analysis like this is critical to ensuring that other schemes that influence market access for Australian forest products treat the Responsible Wood scheme, which is Australia’s largest scheme, in an equitable manner”, said Tony.
Thanks to the Event Organisers
Responsible Wood extends its gratitude to the ACT Branch of Forestry Australia for organising the trip and showcasing this important initiative. Events like this continue to help bridge the gap between policy and practice, helping to build collaboration between foresters, land managers, and sustainability professionals.
As carbon policy and the market for carbon continue to evolve, sustainable forest management and certification remain key to ensuring that carbon farming initiatives can deliver long-term, responsible environmental benefits.