Beginners Guide to Third-Party Forest Certification: Shining a Light on the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Summary

There are several prominent forest certification systems in North America. One of these systems, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is the focus of this article. For land managers and others considering forest certification, this report aims to introduce readers to the standards, governance structure and other basic elements of the SFI system. Background As outlined in the September 2004 issue of the Dovetail Partners newsletter (www.dovetailinc.org), interest in certifying natural resource-based products has grown dramatically over the last ten years. One can now find close to 30 national and international bodies that certify products as to their “green ” attributes.i The certification of forests and forest products is the leading sector in the environmental products certification movement with nearly 450 million acres of forest certified around the world and approximately 4,500 companies marketing certified productsii. The United States and Canada are leaders in the number of acres certified. This high level of participation is due in large part to flourishing national initiatives in each county, including the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) forestry program and the American Forest and Paper Associations ’ (AF&PA) successful development of th