Key roles

This is the key role in logging operations. The forestry operations manager plays a crucial coordinating role, overseeing all logging operations. They will ensure their team complies with the relevant forest management plans, sustainable forest management practices and safety guidelines.

The forestry operations manager will ensure that logging operations are properly planned and carried out. They will be intimately familiar with all aspects of these operations. This role is mostly performed in the field and the successful applicant will have years of experience in this area, being especially familiar with how to deal with challenges due to terrain, the forest environment itself and how to minimize the impact of forestry operations.

The forester is responsible for drawing up, implementing and monitoring the forest management plan and all the management documents relating to the management plan, especially the forest working plan and annual work plans. The forester is the steward of forest resources and good forest management practices, meaning they are central to devising the long-term strategy for logging operations.

Their expertise in the legal side of forest resource management means that they frequently manage the forest certification process for the forest concession owner.

Cartographers play a key role in informing decision-making by holders of forest concessions as their work enables the identification and pinpointing of the resources to be harvested. The cartographer provides cartographic representations on the basis of key data collected on site to help plan various operations. In the framework of forest management, they are often in charge of ensuring timber traceability.

The liaison officer provides an ongoing link between the company and the villages and communities based in or around its operational zone. They are responsible for directly liaising with local communities to choose social development projects which will then be implemented by the company in question. They devise and implement initiatives designed to create, maintain or restore social cohesion and forestall or help settle conflicts between companies and individuals. The community liaison officer is responsible for managing social projects, working as closely as possible with the relevant individuals and communities. They will work directly with and in the village communities in question.

The sociologist is in direct contact with the various stakeholders and plays a key role in implementing the company’s CSR policies, which represent a major pillar in the sustainable forest management approach. Some of their most important tasks are carried out in-house: awareness-raising and knowledge sharing on a wide range of critical topics such as health and safety at work, safeguarding the environment and biodiversity and other subjects relating to compliance with relevant legislation and regulations. Outside the corporate environment, the sociologist maintains an ongoing dialogue with the communities living alongside the forest concession, with whom the company has entered into a company-community partnership – an integral part of the forest management plan. Making a contribution to growing the local economy, promoting social development and respecting cultural traditions are key commitments for any concession holder implementing a sustainable forest management system.

As a result, the forest sociologist has a crucial role to play in conflict prevention, management and resolution.

The Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) manager draws up and manages the company’s policies as they relate to health, safety and the environment. The procedures they implement in accordance with current legislation and regulations are designed to assess, neutralize where possible or minimize the impact from the risks associated with the concession holder’s activities as they might affect their employees, stakeholders and the environment. Prevention and awareness-raising are important components of this role, which is carried out across different company sites due to the requirement to interact with different departments and ongoing workforce training demands.

The sawmill operations manager is responsible for managing and monitoring operations at primary processing sites. Working closely with the sawmill manager, who will set out production targets, the sawmill operations manager oversees production from cutting to length at the log yard to storing bundles of finished products. They will also supervise maintenance tasks and repairs. The sawmill operations manager supervises the log yard bucker, the production teams on each production line (sawyers, edger tenders, graders and potentially planers and stackers) and the forklift operator. They will work closely with maintenance specialists (mechanics and electrical mechanics), as well as the saw filer. This role is carried out in a sawmill, a rotary cutting mill, a log slicing plant or a plywood factory. This is a role that carries with it a lot of responsibility, requiring very frequent travel to various production sites.