Certification
About the Lecturer
Gary Featherston
Gary has 42 years experience with the Forest and Timber Industries from public land and natural resource management perspectives. He is a registered forestry professional. He has successfully maintained his own consulting service company, Forest Strategy Pty Ltd since 2004.
As a senior public service manager: he joined the start-up team for VicForests; he operated as the Chief Marketing Officer; he was the Regional Forester in East Gippsland at the time of the first RFA and Forest Management Plan.
Gary currently runs a certified group scheme for forest management to the Forest Stewardship Council® standards (FSC-C018675). The group also holds two Chain of Custody Certificates, FSC® (FSC-C115552) and PEFC™ that allows small processors to sell certified timber products.
As a field forester, he has extensive experience in the management of forests for multiple objectives including the safe and environmentally responsible harvesting of native forest and plantations for timber.
Gary has experience with forestry compliance activities. He has undertaken Code of Practice audits on contract to local government, project managed the 2013 review of the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, and provides technical expert services to JASANZ who accredit forest management auditors.
2.10 Certification
This presentation will provide information to participants about the two forest certification schemes operating in Australia. It will answer some fundamental questions about why a forest manager would wish to be certified and broadly what are the requirements to be met. It explains the components of forest certification schemes and contrasts the Responsible Wood and Forest Stewardship Council schemes. It provides system diagrams to explain how the processes for certification are interlinked and their components. It provides some broad data on the take up of the two schemes in Australia and internationally.