Certification
In 2002, Smartwood were employed to assess Hancock Victorian Plantations for Forest Stewardship Council certification.
In our submission to Smartwood, we gave evidence of serious unresolved community conflicts and discussed other forest management issues. The unresolved community conflictsare: the misclassification of native forest as plantation; opposition to the quasi-privatisation of the Strzelecki State Forest and the community's vision for a major National park in the Strzeleckis. A major unresolved community conflict or poorly resolved community conflict under FSC Principles is an impediment to certification.
Certification Document in PDF
In February 2004, Smartwood gave Hancock Victorian Plantations certification for its forest management operations. We have begun a formal complaints process with Smartwood on this certification.