Excerpt from the recently released 2014 SFI Progress Report: Future Forests
SFI stands at the intersection of sustainable forests and sustainable communities. You are part of the SFI community, whether you are adding value through managing forestlands, elevating the impact of conservation research, working with youth or learning from elders, broadening market leadership through responsible purchasing, or even if you’re simply a consumer trying to make the right choices.
We thank you for the work you do to ensure a future with healthy, vibrant forests. While SFI staff work hard to ensure your efforts are recognized, it is the SFI Program Participants and our larger community who actively promote conservation across the one-quarter billion acres that are certified to the SFI Standard and the many more acres that are positively affected as a result of SFI’s fiber-sourcing requirements. Through SFI chain-of-custody certificate holders, the good work done by forest managers and procurement organizations is communicated through the supply chain to end users and ultimately consumers.
Certification to the SFI Standard constitutes an investment by our Program Participants in the future of our forests – an investment that in turn depends on market recognition today. Spanning the supply chain from landowners to brand managers, the SFI community understands that healthy forests require healthy markets. When brand managers say yes to SFI, they are sending a signal to landowners, land managers and their customers that they care about responsible forest management. It is organizations like Time Inc., the National Geographic Society, Macmillan and Pearson — SFI Founding Forest Partners — who are making a difference by investing in the growth of certification and responsible supply chains.
We appreciate the progress made in 2013 by The Sustainability Consortium, GreenBlue, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Forest Solutions Group, the Consumer Goods Forum and the National Association of State Foresters for developing and renewing statements, positions, resolutions and performance indicators that continue to send a signal that certification is a valued proof point of responsible forestry.
And thanks to those signals in the supply chain, the forest area and reach of the SFI community continues to grow. With one-quarter billion acres (100 million hectares) certified to the SFI Standard and many more positively influenced by SFI fiber sourcing, SFI has the necessary scale to influence the future of our forests. That scale is equivalent to an area larger than the forested land in the top-eight forested U.S. states combined — Texas, California, Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama and Colorado. That’s also bigger than the combined forested lands in British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. With this scale comes responsibility. SFI’s living reality lab of working forests is a place where responsible forest management is practiced and research is conducted to develop tools and practices to further enhance our conservation contribution across working forests and a larger landscape.
Our influence has grown by actively focusing on research, conservation partnerships and community-building. The SFI program responds to local needs and issues across North America through 34 SFI Implementation Committees at state, provincial and regional levels. Working together, this diverse network results in many of the stats, facts and successes shared on the following pages.
We know that elevating SFI’s impact and performance requires not just a strong standard but a strong community. A community that stands for the future of our forests. Thank you for saying yes to SFI. You are making a difference.
Kathy Abusow
President and CEO
