5-Year Strategic Plan
With the global COVID-19 pandemic causing us to shift and rethink the way we all operate, we have taken the opportunity to reflect and consider what the future holds for FSC in Australia and New Zealand.
Mindful of these reflections and with careful consideration, the Board for FSC ANZ has released our strategic plan for 2021- 2026.
The essence of an effective strategy is to consolidate big ideas while building common ground around a vision of what success looks like in years to come. The strategy outlined in the attached document provides the direction to build specific plans and projects developed to achieve the Board’s ambition.
The strategy identifies some exciting opportunities to further strengthen FSC across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region.
We are part of the FSC 2050 Vision
This strategy has been developed in conjunction with the Board, FSC ANZ staff and feedback from members across the three chambers in Australia and New Zealand.
In addition, this strategy was developed concurrently with FSC International’s was Global Strategic Plan to ensure that we play a role in the FSC network and the outcomes form part of the results to achieve the FSC world vision by 2050:
“healthy forests are recognised by society to be sustaining life on Earth – the world’s forests must be treasured for their intrinsic values as vital ecosystems within the wider landscape.”
While maintaining a strong focus on responsible forest management, the strategy aims to improve the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and support healthy communities and gender equity, while shifting towards a circular and bio-based low-carbon economy. In keeping with the global vison, we believe everyone has a role to play, to take on the stewardship of our forests by recognising and advocating their true value and identifying how they positively impact every one of our lives.
We have reached a defining moment for the world’s forests, and for our organisation. Global agendas increasingly recognise the role of forests in enabling and maintaining life and their important role in mitigating the challenge of climate change, biodiversity loss and concomitant issues of social and gender injustices.
At the same time, forest products are increasingly important in the transition to a bio-based and circular economy. FSC’s concept of responsible forest stewardship, including protection, conservation and restoration as well as management of forest products and services, can provide important contributions to solving global crises. But FSC cannot tackle these challenges alone. Efforts are needed by many actors in society, and increasingly we need to work in alliances to create incentives that make a holistic approach to forest management attractive.
Most of the world’s forests are still not certified according to FSC’s standards for responsible forest stewardship, most notably tropical forests and forests managed by smallholders and communities remain underrepresented in the FSC system. We strongly believe that certification has been – and remains – a powerful solution, but its reach is still too limited to be able to address the extent of the challenge.
Our Priorities
For FSC ANZ, our strategy is founded on the following core beliefs:
We believe healthy forests enable healthy communities;
We believe in the positive environmental and economic impact of ethically certified timber and non-timber forest products; and
We believe that only through connection and partnership with community, industry and government will we create sustainable forestry
Our focus over the next few years includes:·
- Focussing on the growth of forest management certification, particularly working with the Indigenous Working Group (IWG) to assist Indigenous communities achieve FSC certification;
- Building demand for FSC-certified for solid timber products, particularly in the construction industry; and
- Building our partnerships with current and new promotional license holders to continue to create demand for FSC-certified products and supply of certified products to consumers.
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