Although the Australian forest plantation industry acknowledges that there is a role for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in forest management, there is confusion as to what this constitutes in practice. This paper describes the conflicts between internal and external stakeholder views on CSR in plantation forestry. We conducted in-depth interviews with key informants across three plantation management regions in Australia: Tasmania, the Green Triangle and south-west Western Australia. We interviewed a range of stakeholders including forest company employees, local councils, Indigenous representatives, and environmental non-government organisations. CSR-related initiatives that stakeholders believed were important for plantation management included the need for community engagement, accountability towards stakeholders, and contribution to community development and well-being. Although there was wide support for these initiatives, some stakeholders were not satisfied that forest companies were actively implementing them. Due to the perception that forest companies are not committed to CSR initiatives such as community engagement, some stakeholder expectations are not being satisfied.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Environmental Sciences
Research Group:	Environmental Science and Management
Research Field:	Natural Resource Management
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Environmental and Natural Resource Evaluation
Objective Field:	Environmental and Natural Resource Evaluation not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Gordon, M (Mrs Melissa Turner)
UTAS Author:	Lockwood, M (Associate Professor Michael Lockwood)
UTAS Author:	Hanson, D (Dr Dallas Hanson)
ID Code:	80706
Year Published:	2012
Web of Science® Times Cited:	19
Deposited By:	Geography and Environmental Studies
Deposited On:	2012-11-08
Last Modified:	2017-10-31
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