FOA comments on this FSC Working Group report

In general FOA endorses the moves to review the FSC plantations Principles and Criteria (P&C) but on the basis that such a review will achieve a more integrated and cohesive set of evaluation criteria that focus on an effects based view of what differentiates good forest management from bad. The past approach that plantations be an afterthought tacked on to a set of P&C derived principally for the purpose of evaluating tropical/natural rainforest ecosystems has and will not serve either FSC, or the international forestry community well

Extensive recreational use is made of New Zealand’s plantation forests by hunters, trampers, mountain bikers, and many others, with consent for access at the discretion of the owner or manager. Managing these consents is time-consuming and frequently represents an uncompensated cost to the forest operator ...

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