Hancock Watch April 2010

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Where are the FSC Auditors?

In March 2010, auditors from Smartwood (FSC auditors) conducted an annual audit of Hancock's operations in Victoria. Surprisingly Smartwood (Rainforest Alliance) decided not to audit any of Hancock's logging operations in the Strzelecki Ranges, which is by far the most contentious area under Hancock control. This is an outrageous oversight by Smartwood, meaning that for two years no Smartwood audit team will visit the Strzelecki Ranges, where Hancock are currently cleafelling highly sensitive areas (High Conservation Forests) inside a rainforest reserve. These are the most sensitive forests currently certified by the FSC system in Australia, are sites of national conservation significance and FSC Australia continue to remain mute about the activities of Hancock who are logging these forests without accountable scrutiny by independent assessors.

Despite requests from local environmentalists, Smartwood only spoke to a couple of people by telephone. This shows that the FSC system can be open to abuse and that annual audits can in no way take into account the hundreds of hectares of logging done by Hancock in the Strzeleckis each year, let alone the thousands of hectares of plantation logging elsewhere in Victoria. In the 2009 audits, a Smartwood auditor when confronted with allegations of Hancock logging old growth forests, said via telephone, "I can't say anything if I haven't seen it with my own eyes". The auditor had visited the Strzeleckis a few days earlier, not visiting the area of concern, or contacting the stakeholder prior to his site audits. He promptly flew out of Australia at the end of the week without visiting the site of concern and the allegations were never investigated.

April 2010: Strzelecki Ranges - Merrimans Creek Catchment - McBain's Road. Recent logging and burning of 40 year old reforestation by Hancock.