Held under the theme The forestry story: Strategies for improved awareness, social licence and effective engagement, the symposium brought together speakers from forestry and other sectors to examine how the industry communicates with Traditional Owners, policymakers, the media and the wider community.
The event opened with a keynote from Wiradjuri journalist, author and Monash University Professor Stan Grant, who spoke about the changing nature of public debate and the difficulty of communicating across increasingly divided views.
In his address, When words fail us, bridging the divide, Grant told delegates that people increasingly “speak to oppose rather than to understand”.
“If we cannot speak, if our words are weapons, how on earth do we speak across those divides?” he asked.
Grant drew on his own family history in forestry. His father, Stan Grant Sr, worked in sawmills and forests, moving the family from town to town. Grant said his family was “effectively homeless” for his first 15 years, at times living in a sawmill shack when his father could get one.
He recalled his father coming home and telling his mother that Aboriginal men at the mill had been laid off, which Grant linked to the environmental movement of the 1970s.
Grant said protest was essential in a democracy, while describing his own upbringing as a crossroads where “there was no this side or that side”.
He also reflected on the language of the sawmills, saying the men used few words, but their words “got things done”. He described the language he heard from his father at smoko as “the language that comes from the soil”.
The keynote was followed by sessions examining public perceptions of forestry and social licence, lessons from other rural industries, politics and advocacy, and collaboration around native forests.
Forestry Australia President Dr Michelle Freeman said Australians cared deeply about their forests and the people who worked in them.
“Our members are the scientists, managers, fire specialists and growers who work in those forests, across every forest type and every tenure,” she said.
Forestry Australia CEO Jacquie Martin said social licence depended on “genuine connection, trust, accountability and a shared commitment to the long-term stewardship of Australia’s forests”.
Symposium convenor Matt de Jongh said the program deliberately included perspectives from outside forestry.
“It gives us an opportunity to challenge our thinking, learn from others, and come back better prepared to engage with the community,” he said.
De Jongh had recently returned from two weeks in British Columbia and the US north-west, where he said forestry faced challenges that were “remarkably familiar” to those in Australia, including misinformation, a lack of understanding about sustainable forest management and the need to build trust with the wider community.
The symposium also considered the role of forest science in national issues including housing, agriculture, sovereignty, wildfire, climate adaptation, carbon and nature repair.
First Nations knowledge, leadership and enterprise featured in A Shared Forestry Story, with contributions from Phil Thompson of Native Secrets, Tommy Hicks of Indigenous Energy Australia and Tolita Davis-Angeles, Chair of the FSC First Nations Committee.
The Thursday program included a keynote from Dr Simon Longstaff AO, Executive Director of The Ethics Centre, followed by sessions on the lessons of the past, effective communication, media and social media engagement, and engaging the next generation.
The symposium’s final plenary, Taking the Forestry Story Forward: What’s Next?, brought together forestry leaders to discuss the future direction of the sector.
The program concluded with the Symposium Dinner at the National Arboretum, before delegates headed into the field on Friday for five field trips.
The field trips covered climate change and forest resilience, community access and plantation forestry, urban forestry in Canberra, forest management at Tallaganda State Forest, and research and long-term knowledge at ANU.
Across the program, the focus remained on how the forestry sector communicates its work and engages with the communities, organisations and individuals with an interest in Australia’s forests.
Source: Daily Timber News and Wood Central’s Jason Ross