| Landowner Certification Systems |
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Landowner Certification Systems
Providing Certainty to Consumers
Oregon's productive forests are an amazing resource. Wood from sustainably grown trees is renewable, recyclable and is the primary material in thousands of products Americans use daily. Through professional forest management and protective laws, Oregon has maintained and improved our forestland for over a century, while at the same time, supplying the world with this remarkable and sustainable material. Many Oregon forest landowners voluntarily participate in nationally and internationally-recognized forest management certification programs to provide additional verification of sustainable forestry. These private forest management and forest product certifying organizations require participants to adhere to standards of long-term forest management, sustainable forestry, as well as normal compliance with state, federal, and local forest laws & regulations. Certification systems assure consumers that the product they are purchasing meets certain standards. Forest certification refers to an independent, third-party evaluation of the management of a particular forest against a certain standard. A certification logo or tag on a wood-based product alerts consumers that wood used to produce that product is from a certified forest. Forest Operators Play an Important Role in Certification Having well-informed forest operators performing management activities can help to ensure proper techniques and care is used to sustainably manage forestlands. There are two certification systems that require or highly suggest professionally qualified operators complete management activities - The Sustainable Forestry Initiative and The American Tree Farm System. Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) The Sustainable Forestry Initiative was adopted in 1994 by the American Forest and Paper Association as a means to improve the health and sustainability of industrial forestland in the United States. The SFI standard for forest management includes principles, objectives, performance measures, and core indicators that must be met in order to earn designation as a sustainably managed forest. SFI is overseen by the Sustainable Forestry Board, an independent organization created to maintain and enhance the standard and assessment procedures. The majority of forest industry land in the United States and Canada is certified under SFI. SFI frequently updates their sustainability standards and decades ago worked with Associated Oregon Loggers to develop a professional qualification for forest operators in Oregon for those that contract with SFI certified entities. The SFI certification REQUIRES forest operators to be qualified in order to work for SFI certified entities. The Oregon Professional Loggers Program has gone through many iterations over the years to stay current with new sustainability standards and in 2023, the program moved from a company based qualification to an individual based qualification. This was the most significant overhaul to the program since its inception in Oregon. American Tree Farm System (ATFS) The ATFS is a program of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), a national nonprofit organization, but in Oregon it is administered by the Oregon Small Woodlands Association. The ATFS was started in 1941 as a means to promote the benefits of scientific forestry at a time when leaders of industry felt that America's private forests were being cut at unsustainable rates. Landowners can become ATFS members only after an inspection of their property and management plan by a professional forester who is trained as a Tree Farm inspector. ATFS membership is open to any individual or organization owning between 10 and 10,000 contiguous forested acres, however, state government agencies and publicly traded companies are excluded. The primary users of the ATFS certification are small forestland owners. The ATFS certification SUGGESTS forest operators be qualified in order to work on ATFS certified tree farms, however, the SFI program recognizes the ATFS, meaning that ATFS-certified land is valid under the SFI program as well. Global Programs The SFI program is only available in the US and Canada while the AFTS is only available in the US. There are however globally recognized certification systems as well. Due to the universal nature of these programs, they tend to be broader with boards and standards that must conform to a different level of standards. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) The Forest Stewardship Council was founded in 1993 by loggers, foresters, economists, environmentalists, and sociologists to promote "environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests".
FSC seeks to ensure that forest management maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity, and ecology. The FSC standard includes a social component that acknowledges the sustainable forest management benefits to local communities and society.
FSC advocates the balancing of economic objectives with ecosystem objectives and the well-being of the local community. Unlike its primarily American counterparts, the FSC certification does not require a qualified operator to perform its management activities. Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Although slightly different than the other programs listed here, the PEFC is in fact the largest certified program for family-owned forests worldwide. In 1999, small- and family forest owners from Europe came together to create a forest certification system that would enable them to demonstrate their excellence in sustainable forest management. It is a leading global alliance of national forest certification systems. As an international non-profit, non-governmental organization, PEFC is dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management through independent third-party certification. PEFC endorses national forest certification systems developed through multi-stakeholder processes and that are tailored to local priorities and conditions. The PEFC program provides forest owners, from the large to the small, with a tool to demonstrate their responsible practices, while empowering consumers and companies to buy sustainably. PEFC does endorse SFI and ATFS, but does not endorse FSC as it is a competitor in the global certification space. Because of this, to be PEFC certified in Oregon, it would either be required (under SFI) or highly suggested (under ATFS) that an operator is qualified under AOL's Oregon Professional Logger Program. Types of Forest Certification
Forest Management
As the most common type of certification, forest management certification evaluates the management of a specific piece of forestland against an agreed-upon standard. Certification can be specific to a single tract even though the forest manager may own or manage other forests. All four certification programs have forest management certification standards. Chain of Custody
This type of certification provides a system for tracking wood from the forest to the finished product. Chain of custody certification is available to manufacturers, mills, distributors, and retailers who purchase, use, or sell certified wood. A chain of custody system, coupled with a product label identifying the certification system, assures the public that the wood product labeled "certified" was produced from a well-managed forest. The certification label helps concerned consumers and responsible forest managers buy and sell products that come from well-managed forests. At present, all four programs offer chain of custody certification, and the SFI, FSC and PEFC have product labels. Group Certification
All inspection and verification processes in forest certification can be costly. Group certification is a new approach to US forest certification programs designed to reduce the cost of certification to each individual owner by combining forestland under one professional or one certificate holder. Certified groups have a common manager or management team that does not hold title or have any legal or management right to the property. The group manager is someone contracted by the landowners based on some commonality: proximity, family ties, or a single forestry consultant. The FSC and the ATFS offer a group certification option, and SFI also plans to make it available in certain geographies. Fiber Sourcing Standard
This program is primarily for wood procuring firms that do not own or manage land themselves. SFI introduced this program in 2015. This program ensures that raw material in the supply chain of these wood procuring organizations comes from legal and responsible sources, regardless of the certification status of the forestland. The fiber sourcing requirements include measures to implement best management practices (BMPs) to protect water quality, encourage practices to promote biodiversity, and organize landowner outreach activities. Responsible Sourcing
In addition to the certification programs identified above, ASTM International also provides over 12,500 product standards that operate globally for a multitude of different sectors and supply chains. For the forest sector, ASTM Standard D7612 was developed to differentiate global wood sourcing and to simplify the specification requirements for purchasing wood and wood-based materials. The standard recognizes three categories of wood products according to production criteria and meets criterion of international and market recognition: legal, responsible and certified. You can learn more about forest certification and responsible sourcing by checking out ODF's website. |
