Claims of ‘sustainability’ UNSUSTAINABLE
In early November, the logging industry launched a new self-certified standard of logging in Australia. It claims its practices are now acceptable on a global scale.
Australian Forestry Standard
Their self-certification scheme (invented by the industry for the industry) is called the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS). An equally dubious international group called the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification has sanctioned it. However, these schemes underestimate the intelligence of retailers who will require genuine eco-credentials for the timber they are selling. Consumers are also becoming very cynical of such claims. The EcoSelect TV ads being a case in point. Recent market research has shown that such claims set off consumers’ alarm bells.
International markets will be even more meticulous about checking the credibility of shonky schemes than our own timber retailers.