Forest landowners want to manage their land to sustainably produce environmental, social and economic benefits. Forest certification is a market-based approach to recognize sustainable forest management by labeling forests and the wood products from those forests as being certified. Having your forestland certified under the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) lets people know that you are proudly managing your forest sustainably and are in it for the long haul.
Understand the major Forest Certification systems
The following resources will help you decide if forest certification is right for your forest. Start with the presentation below titled Forest Certification Basics. It will give you a great overview of the common systems. If you decide that forest certification makes sense for your forest, then continue to explore the additional resources to learn more about the various systems and how to go about having your forest certified. ATFS, SFI and FSC all have excellent web pages that provide numerous resources about their programs. Dovetail Partners is a environmental policy and education non-profit that has excellent resources on forest certification systems in general. The publications listed below are intended to provide an overview and get you started.
|For more information, please conact:
Mike Cloughesy, Oregon Forest Resources Institute
FOREST CERTIFICATION RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED:
- American Forest Foundation (AFF) 2015-2020 Standards of Sustainability These Standards are based on international sustainability metrics and North American guidelines for sustainable forest management and serve as the basis for the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) forest certification program.
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC-US) Management Standard (v1.0) This 2010 draft National Standard pertains to forest management according to the Forest Stewardship Council system in the United States and incorporates regional standards.
- Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) 2015-2019 Standards and Rules The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management. Forests certified to these SFI Standards cove a quarter-billion acres in the US and Canada.
- Forest Certification Update: Changes to the SFI and FSC Standards in 2015. Third-party forest certification began more than twenty years ago, and the have been a number of revisions to the standards used to conduct forest management audits in North America. This report by Dovetail Partners describes the 2015 changes to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council Standards.
- Forest Certification Basics with Mike Cloughesy Overview of the common forest certification systems and their potential applicability to your forest
- What is Forest Certification? This 6 minute YouTube video describes the major forest certification systems in the U.S.