Setting the standard for the forest industry in Australia
Twenty forest businesses across Australia are piloting each step of ForestFit Certification.
The industry led development of a national set of standards and criteria for forest businesses will streamline auditing processes through alignment with existing schemes (eg Responsible Wood), regulatory requirements, Australian Standards and industry codes of practice.
Watch out for our next ForestFit industry update available mid-October 2021
ForestFit is scalable for all sized forest businesses and pilot participants include sole providers through to business of more than 100 employees. Pilot participants work across the majority of states and land tenures including plantation, private native forest and state native forest.
Businesses have the opportunity to self select which of their current, or future operations, they undertake will be certified. The operational scopes include:
- Harvest
- Haulage
- Civil
- Silviculture
- Minor forest products (eg firewood)
The feedback and input received throughout the pilot will influence the final certification framework, processes and criteria for national roll out.
National pilot
Funded by Department of Primary Industries, NSW, 15 forest contracting businesses are participating in the national pilot that of all the ForestFit Certification standards:
- Standard 1: General Requirements (mandatory)
- Standard 2: Business sustainability
- Standard 3: Work health and safety
- Standard 4: Environmental practices.
QLD State native forest pilot
Funded by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) five forest businesses operating in state native forest are participating in the QLD pilot of the WHS Standard.
The five businesses participating in the pilot are permittees and contractors who range from small to large business sizes and undertake harvest, haulage, roading, sawmilling and other forest operations.
Leveraging the work being conducted at a national level through ForestFit project, the feedback and input received by those participating in the pilots will influence the WHS process to be implemented in State authorised forest harvesting operations and the final ForestFit Certification framework, processes and criteria for national roll out of the WHS Standard.
Certification updates
The next industry update will be available mid-October. Stay up to date by signing up to get the latest news, click here.
ForestFit industry update - Issue 04
ForestFit industry update - Issue 03
ForestFit industry update - Issue 02
ForestFit industry update - Issue 01
Currently as part of the ForestFit Training and Certification project, working jointly with industry and NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), industry led design provides continuous input into the development of the certification framework:
- Pilot process meeting and launch (17 Sep 2021)
- Certification feedback session (06 Sep 2021)
- Industry briefing session (05 Aug 2021)
- Criteria feedback session (19 Jul 2021)
- Criteria design session (01 Jul 2021)
- Criteria design session (30 Jun 2021)
- Criteria design session (07 Jun 2021)
- Industry briefing session (17 and 25 May 2021)
- Certification blueprint design session part 2 (03 May 2021)
- Certification blueprint design session part 1 (22 Mar 2021)
- Research insights report (09 Mar 2021)
- Industry briefing session (04 Mar 2021)
Please contact us if you would like to participate in our industry engagement sessions.