The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has attacked Australia’s newly-endorsed national forestry standard.
The group says the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS), a voluntary standard requiring independent auditors to certify the practices of forest growers, would be ignored by international companies who would see it as failing to meet their sustainability concerns.
WWF spokesperson Michael Rae said the AFS could not compare with certification from an international body.
Green groups had earlier pulled out of involvement with the standard because issues such as pesticides, clear-felling and conversion of native forest to plantations were not addressed.
