We are forest people
With 2022 in full swing, forest management in Victoria has never been more important.
The threat of bushfires, an ever-growing concern around climate issues, timber shortages and a bolstered Victorian Forestry Plan have all meant an understandably strong focus on Victorian forests.
All of these factors only further emphasise the need for expert forest management, without which there would be devastating consequences.
At VicForests we play a crucial role in managing Victorian forests. Our people are the experts in their field and care deeply for the land on which we work as we play a significant role in growing and regenerating Victorian forest with sustainable and responsible harvesting whilst protecting our precious wildlife in our native forests.
This is central to everything we do, and our staff and contractors have skills and expertise in the area that are irreplaceable. They go above and beyond the regulatory requirements to protect Victoria’s wildlife and flora.
VicForests respectfully acknowledges Aboriginal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land and water on which we rely.
Australia’s Indigenous Peoples have actively cared for and managed Australia’s landscapes over millennia.
We are committed to tangible partnerships with Traditional Owners to ensure their knowledge influences our practices and that our land management activities reinforce their custodianship and assist them in caring for Country. We are also committed to providing opportunities for Traditional Owners to benefit from the management and use of resources on their Country.
As leaders in sustainable forest management our activities are informed by the latest research and guided by best practice. Before commencing any harvesting, we take a scientific and evidence-based approach to our planning that includes conducting flora, fauna and habitat surveys.
These pre-harvest surveys undertaken by VicForests include Arboreal Spotlight and Call Playback surveys, Flora surveys, Old Growth Forest Identification surveys and Habitat Tree surveys.
The Conservation Regulator also conducts pre-harvest surveys in coupes of the highest biodiversity priority through the Forest Protection Survey Program. These identify whether threatened species are present on a coupe and, based on that, VicForests applies the necessary prescriptions required under the Code of Practice for Timber Production, for their protection. Our harvesting operations are subject to Victorian laws and enforced by the Conservation Regulator.
We are proud to be certified under the Responsible Wood certification scheme endorsed by the (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) – the largest forest certification system in the world.
Each year we harvest around 3000 hectares, which is around 0.04% of native forests across Victoria.
And it’s important to us that anyone who buys timber products harvested by VicForests can be secure in the knowledge that it has been harvested responsibly, sustainably and with care and respect for our forests.
VicForests is committed to implementing the recent changes made to the Victorian Forestry Plan in 2022. This is not just a requirement, but a big part of our commitment to sustainability and the environmental values in which we operate.
Over the coming weeks and months, we will be increasingly spreading the word of the good work we do in Victoria’s forests, the benefit we bring to the Victorian economy, our care for the environment, the communities in which our people work and live and the quality of the products for which our timber is used such as dining room tables, fences, egg cartons, books, polished floorboards, staircases, pallets, and guitars to name a few.
We look forward to telling the good story of VicForests, its people and its purpose.
