Are Smartwood really lapdogs for the Australian timber industry?
An answer to this question appears to be yes. Smartwood’s reputation as ‘honest brokers’ has hit an all time low with their most recent audit of Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP). So serious are the implications of Smartwood’s latest appraisal of HVP that not only has it raised serious doubts about the ethics of Smartwood, but has raised massive credibility issues with FSC itself. It has certainly been a fascinating exercise to watch Smartwood trip over themselves for the past 4 years, in continuing to take money from one of the more morally bankrupt companies operating in Australia. The longer Smartwood fails to tackle HVP, the further it reveals the philosophical shortcomings of a certification system that is slowly drowning in the moral quicksand so commonplace within the Australian timber industry. Smartwood themselves are now increasingly being tarred with a very dirty brush that ultimately will severely tarnish their reputation in this country. As pointed out on the FSC-Watch w
