Sustainable Forestry Initiative Launches New Standard

January 12, 2010

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Abusow said the new standard further supports the crucial role all forest landowners play in managing North America's forests, including landowner outreach to family forest owners who supply wood fiber to SFI program participants. "The new standard's fiber sourcing requirements continue to support family forest owners in protecting threatened and endangered species, promoting reforestation and strengthening best management practices to protect water quality," she said. "In fact, it now explicitly requires this valuable assistance, along with programs to address Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value when working directly with family forest landowners."  In addition, the SFI program continues to collaborate with the American Tree Farm System to increase forest certification on family forest lands.

The SFI 2010-2014 Standard is based on 14 core principles that promote sustainable forest management, including measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk, and Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value. It has five more principles than the SFI 2005-2009 Standard, including separate principles for protection of special sites, biodiversity, aesthetics and recreation, and new principles for responsible procurement practices in North America, avoidance of controversial sources offshore, research, training and education, and public involvement.

The standard also has 20 objectives, 39 performance measures and 114 indicators - up from 13 objectives, 34 performance measures, and 102 indicators.To be certified, forest operations must be third-party audited to these requirements by independent, objective and accredited certification bodies. The SFI program is committed to continuously improving responsible forest management.

Members of the SFI Resources Committee were responsible for developing the SFI 2010-2014 Standard. Like the three-chamber SFI Board of Directors, which is solely responsible for the SFI program and the standard development process, the resources committee has balanced representation from environmental, social and economic sectors. SFI Inc. publicized the process at every step, and during both review periods, it invited about 2,000 individuals and organizations to submit comments.

The new standard, posted at www.sfiprogram.org/sustainable_forestry_initiative_standard.php, took effect on Jan. 1, 2010, and program participants have up to one year to implement these changes.

Editors: Backgrounders about the new SFI 2010-2014 Standard are in the PDF version of this news release.

About SFI Inc.
SFI Inc. is an independent 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the internationally recognized Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org). More than 180 million acres (73 million hectares) are certified to the SFI forest management standard across North America, making it the largest single standard in the world. SFI chain-of-custody certification tells buyers the percentage of certified fiber in a specific product. The SFI program's unique fiber sourcing requirements promote responsible forest management on all suppliers' lands. The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.