Recently, the Responsible Wood team took the opportunity to speak with ForestrySA’s Chief Executive, Tim Ryan, about how sustainable forest management certification is helping their team not just deliver healthy forests, but to build trust with stakeholders.
ForestrySA manages both commercial pine plantations and native vegetation across South Australia, including the Mount Lofty Ranges. Covering around 30,000 hectares, the organisation balances ecological, social and economic outcomes while providing recreational spaces close to Adelaide. With a team of 40, the organisation oversees both sustainable timber production and conservation initiatives, ensuring the forests remain healthy, productive, and accessible to the community.
“A healthy forest is one that survives and thrives ecologically, socially and economically in a completely sustainable way,” said Tim.
“In practice, that’s a forest that supports local communities and jobs and economic activity in the communities that we work in. It also means providing space for recreational opportunities. So we’re looking for a balance, more than anything. Obviously first and foremost a healthy tree starts a healthy forest. But beyond that, it’s really how does the forest fit into the community and society.”
While the decision to pursue Responsible Wood certification predates Tim’s appointment, the reasons why were still easy to quantify.
“We are a responsible and sustainable forest manager, and we want people to understand that.”
“Certification really represents… a standard and quality. It communicates our commitment to the community about how we manage our forest sustainably. It provides a framework and ensures that we’re doing the right thing and that the practises we are carrying out meet the standards required.”
For some, the concept of certification can feel abstract, or even simply ‘a box to be ticked’. But for ForestrySA, Responsible Wood certification has delivered real benefits.
“Certification has meant tangible improvements in how we deliver forestry… it’s not just about the productivity of a tree or the final product, it covers all sorts of things. The way we look after the biodiversity in the forest, the corridors (referring to ForestrySA’s biodiversity corridors, areas of vegetation that allow animals to travel from one patch of native forest to another), how we look after the different species in the forest, it’s how we engage with our local community and keep them informed about practises in the forest. We’ve got a number of different monitoring programmes that we run across both the commercial and the native forest reserve.”
“We are a better forester for being accredited.”
“Even our harvesting practises, managing the impact on the habitat, but making sure our harvesting practises are well understood by the community, making sure that they’re carried out safely in in an area where we do have a lot of visitors to the forest.”
For Tim, and ForestrySA, the value of certification goes beyond ensuring things are managed responsibly and sustainably. It helps communicate those outcomes to key stakeholders, from the local community who volunteer or use the spaces for recreational purposes, to commercial operators and customers benefitting from plantations.
“I think independent audits give that confidence to the community that we are doing all the right things… It’s the tick of approval that we’re doing things the right way.”
“It does influence the way we communicate with just about every stakeholder in the chain, from our customers and contractors… right through to the community… It does influence how we talk about forestry and the expectations we have about how to manage a forest at every stage.”
