By Marcus Downie, Australian Furniture Association
Furniture supply chains are complex beasts. If you are a local manufacturer, you might source your timber through a wholesaler or distributor. But where does that timber originate? How confident are you that it originates from a responsibly managed plantation, and has a chain of custody capable of tracking that timber through each step and sub-supplier to your facility? Or if you are a retailer – can the manufacturer or stockists you buy through provide the documented assurance of the timber provenance you and your customers expect? If you are specifying or buying furniture – how do you know where the timber in the products of interest comes from?
Australia has strict laws and significant penalties associated with illegally logged timber supplied in Australia or ending up in products supplied in Australia. Current pressures on these laws are high. The demand for furniture is ever increasing due to national demographic growth and a push for housing volume due to pressure on house prices. Cost of living pressures and ready availability of cheap “fast furniture” can lead to purchase of poor-quality unsafe furniture which moves quickly through use to end up in landfill. Moreover, international suppliers are likely to turn their focus away from the US due to tariff concerns and to focus on market growth in our region, further exacerbating the problem. The onset of poorly regulated products entering Australia is growing, with the risk of illegally logged timber greenwashed through third party sources ever present.
There are two key Forest Certification schemes in Australia: The Responsible Wood certification scheme, and the Forest Stewardship Certification scheme. Both of these schemes provide voluntary, independent third-party assurance of best practice responsible forest management and are aligned with their international counterparts. Internationally recognised scheme PEFC have appointed Responsible Wood as their National Governing Body here in Australia, with FSC Australia endorsed by FSC International.
Forest and Wood Products Australia have recently conducted a review into the two certification schemes which you can see HERE. It is common for the differences of the two schemes to cause some confusion, and this report provides clear guidance on the key characteristics of each. Pleasingly the Report shows in 2025 the combined certified areas of the two schemes account effectively for all Australian large scale plantation holdings as well as some private native forests managed for multiple uses including timber production.
The report focuses on similarities of the two schemes which include impressive governance, standards setting and performance management requirements, and points out these similarities are often overlooked as focus turns to the differences. Differences include nuances associated with treatment of conversion from natural forest, delegation of control, tracking and tracing systems associated with chain of custody considerations and the treatment of chemical pesticides.
What is clear is that the two schemes are accelerating Australia’s leadership in forest management and promoting environmental and economic benefits of responsibly sourced timber. We encourage you to read through the report. Should you have any questions please reach out to us here at the Australian Furniture Association. Remember the AFA have a valued resource available Illegal Logging Toolkit which can help ensure statutory compliance
Read the Report
👉 Download the FWPA Certification Review HERE
Need Help With Compliance?
The AFA’s Illegal Logging Toolkit provides practical guidance to help businesses meet Australia’s statutory requirements.
👉 Access the AFA Illegal Logging Toolkit HERE
Questions or Support?
The AFA is here to help.
👉 Contact us at: care@theafa.asn.au