Victorians will be unable to buy native timber from their own state at major retailers within two years because the local product is environmentally unsustainable, throwing the future of the industry into further doubt.

Bunnings and Officeworks have both announced they will only stock Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products by 2020, ruling out timber and paper from the state-owned logging company VicForests.

The certification is an internationally-recognised tick of responsible forest management.

Bunnings director of marketing and merchandise Clive Duncan said the company wants to ensure all its timber and wood products come from legal and well-managed forest operations.

"The recent update to our policy and the 2020 timing is a significant milestone that reflects our continued focus on responsible timber procurement," he said.

"We believe customers and team members have the right to expect that timber is sourced from well managed forestry operations."

Officeworks said it has a long-standing commitment to sustainability, with a goal to have all copy paper either 100 per cent recycled or FSC-certified by 2020.

Native timber fails sustainability test

The native timber industry has been a tough policy issue for the Andrews Government, which last year took the unusual step of buying a private mill to avoid job losses.

The Government is under pressure to protect forests in the Central Highlands by creating a new national park, dubbed the Great Forest National Park by campaigners, while also juggling the need to protect blue-collar jobs.

The decision of Bunnings and Officeworks is a blow to VicForests, which first applied for FSC accreditation in 2008 and has been denied it multiple times.

The organisation went through an FSC audit in December last year but is yet to release the results.

In a statement, VicForests said it had received the FSC audit report and was considering the contents, with a response to be released "in due course".

A spokesman said VicForests was committed to achieving FSC certification.

VicForests supplies native timber to mills across the state. ( ABC News: Stephanie Anderson )

The decision by two major retailers to demand FSC standards raises questions about the future of Victoria's native forest timber industry.

Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford referred questions to VicForests, while the Victorian Association of Forest Industries said only that it supported forest certification.

Amelia Young from the Wilderness Society said customers and retailers were several steps ahead of government policy.

"I think the government needs to ratchet back its exit from native forests to be in line with the science, but also to be in line with community expectations … and to be in line with what the markets are doing," she said.

Ms Young was sceptical that VicForests could ever achieve the FSC tick.

"It's very difficult to see how anybody could be able to log a critically endangered forest and claim that that's sustainable," she said.

"Given that VicForests has tried and failed to get FSC certification at least three times in the last 10 years things aren't looking too good."

But Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh said the industry needed more support and long-term certainty about the availability of trees for logging.

"I think in some ways the forest industry because of that green agenda is being demonised and demonised very, very unfairly," he said.

"If you talk to VicForests if you talk to the people who work in the industry, those who have a long term commitment to the sustainability of our forest industries, they believe they are working very, very hard to do the right thing."

