Standards  

Ensuring Standards for Professional Forestry Consultants
Tony Fearnside

Member of the ACFA hard at work in a steamy forest on the far north coast of NSW.

A major concern for any professional association must be the setting and achievement of standards by its members, and Association of Consulting Foresters of Australia (ACFA) is no exception. This is all the more so since greater use will be made of forestry consultancies in the future as government departments become more aware how to use them effectively, and as the private forestry sector becomes more dominant.

ACFA sets out to ensure high professional standards in several ways, and recognizes that it must also provide services to help its members to achieve and maintain these standards, and to run successful consultancy businesses. To do these things, ACFA must run its own affairs competently and engage in short, medium and long-term planning.

Setting standards: 
 ACFA requires its members to 

  • meet strict entry qualifications (eligible to be a voting member of IFA, 5 years' relevant experience as a forester and at least one year's experience as a consulting forester)

  • comply with a strict code of ethics

  • hold stipulated business insurance (particularly professional indemnity cover)

  • undertake a continuing professional development program which is auditable 

  • adhere to the rules of the Association.

 

Services to members of the public:
ACFA sets out to help members of the public and possible clients by

  • providing up to date lists of members and their skills

  • providing personal profiles of members

  • maintaining a recommended scale of fees

  • providing details of consultants able to provide specific services

  • ensuring an accepted methodology for forest valuation.

 

Providing services to members of the Association: 
ACFA serves it members by

  • providing networking opportunities

  • operating a continuing professional development scheme

  • providing opportunities for professional development

  • organizing annual conferences and field inspections

  • issuing regular newsletter

  • identifying business training opportunities

  • carrying out surveys of the state of consulting market 

  • making representations

  • advertising the Association and its members

  • developing a registration/accreditation scheme (with IFA).

 

Membership
Eligibility for voting membership of IFA is a pre-requisite for all membership grades, which are

  • honorary - a person distinguished in their attainment whose activities have promoted the objects of the Association

  • full - a person practicing regularly as a consultant forester with at least 5 years' relevant forestry experience and one year's consulting experience

  • provisional - must be practicing consulting forestry in a way that is acceptable to the Association

  • associate - non practicing full members

  • retired - a former full member whose income from consulting is now below the income tax threshold.

 

For further information contact:

Telephone: (02) 6281 3992
FAX:  (02) 6281 4693
Postal address: PO BOX 7002, Yarralumla ACT 2600
Email: acfa@forestry.org.au