History

The vision for Australian Sustainable Timbers (AST) grew out of past work with Greening Australia and Landcare over the last decade, raising awareness within the community of the opportunities of sustainable management of ‘farm forests’.

Our work in education and training began with a focus on the design of small-scale farm forestry plantations which could maximise multiple natural resource management benefits whilst also improving farm productivity and profitability. From here our focus shifted to the management of native forests as systems which inherently incorporate both economic and biodiversity values.

Our experience working with landholders also exposed us to the lack of ‘forestry culture’ and silvicultural knowledge within the farming community, as well as the generally poor condition of native forests on private land. We therefore focused our efforts on education and awareness and training in native forest management and on practical demonstrations of appropriate silvicultural systems.

The formation of AST was a natural progression from this work as it provided a pathway to deliver better forest management coupled with increased returns to private forest owners to allow small-scale, sustainable, intergenerational forestry operations.

Australian Sustainable Timbers is grateful for ‘seed’ funding it has received from State and Regional Development for both the initial FSC assessment and a contribution towards the costs of establishing a group certification scheme. Australian Sustainable Timbers has engaged Soil Association Woodmark, an FSC accredited certification body as their auditing body.

Our business is multifaceted; we understand the science of producing high quality timber, the logistics of harvesting, the importance of biodiversity conservation, the potential of the timber market and the community in the Hunter. We established the company in April 2006 to provide a mechanism for collective marketing of timber products while ensuring quality and sustainability through FSC certification. Our direct relationship with growers allows us a flexibility and continuity of timber supply and means that we are better placed to pass on the benefits to our members and clients.