SFI – TAKING A FIRM STANCE AGAINST DEFORESTATION/FOREST DEGRADATION

SFI, along with others worldwide, shares the vision of ensuring forests remain as forests. The SFI Forest Management Standard does not allow deforestation and has strong requirements to prevent forest degradation. The SFI Fiber Sourcing and SFI Chain of Custody Standards also have requirements to ensure SFI-certified organizations avoid sourcing from controversial sources, which includes conversion sources originating from regions experiencing forest area decline.

While the SFI Forest Management Standard has strong requirements to prevent forest degradation, definitions on “deforestation” as well as “forest degradation” were added this spring to strengthen SFI’s position on these critical topics. Additional guidance was also adopted to link the new definitions to SFI standard requirements.

SFI Standards Prevent Deforestation

The SFI Forest Management Performance Measure 1.3 specifies SFI’s commitment to no-deforestation, indicating that “Forest lands converted to other land uses shall not be certified to this SFI Standard.” These restrictions are intended to apply to the conversion of forest land and recently deforested land that is capable of regenerating to forest but is preventing from doing so. Furthermore, if a SFI certified organization plans to convert one forest cover type to another forest cover type, they must conduct an assessment of the potential ecological impacts to ensure it does not significantly impact Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values, old growth forest, and/or forest critical to threatened and endangered species.

The SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard and the SFI Chain of Custody Standard also require SFI-certified organizations to assess the risk of sourcing forest fiber from controversial sources including from conversion sources originating from regions experiencing forest area decline. If a SFI-certified organization determines they are sourcing from such sources, they will need to mitigate this risk of sourcing this forest fiber.

SFI Standards Prevent Forest Degradation

The SFI Forest Management Standard prevents forest degradation through five core areas which act to limit lasting and significant direct anthropogenic impacts to the structure, composition, or function of the forest. Below are those areas and the key requirements of the SFI Forest Management Standard.

Furthermore, SFI Performance Measure 1.2 lays out specific constraints on conversion of one forest cover type to another forest cover type, which in turn also prevents forest degradation. In particular, PM 1.2 precludes conversion of one forest cover type to another forest cover type in the absence of objectives for long-term outcomes that support maintaining native forest cover types and ecological function. This includes where conversion puts rare; ecologically important, native forest cover types at risk of becoming rare, or where conversion creates significant adverse impacts on Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value, old growth forests, or forests critical to threatened and endangered species.

SFI Board Policy Cutoff Date

In March 2024, the SFI Board officially adopted a policy which reconfirms SFI’s commitment to no deforestation and no forest degradation by explicitly prohibiting certification to the SFI Forest Management Standard on lands that are deforested and on practices that are causing forest degradation after December 31, 2020. With these enhancements, SFI’s Forest Management Standard is well positioned to demonstrate compliance with any regulatory requirements focused on deforestation and forest degradation.

SFI Module with Supplemental Requirements to Support EUDR Compliance

With the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) accelerating these global conversations, it’s also important we develop tools specifically for those organizations looking to demonstrate compliance with EUDR. In March 2024, SFI introduced an optional module for companies certified to the SFI Fiber Sourcing and Chain of Custody Standards. This optional EUDR module applies to the manufacturing facilities and therefore can provide relevance directly in the supply chain for products going into the EU. Because this module was developed for EUDR compliance specifically, the module integrates EUDR definitions as well as EUDR’s due diligence system. SFI-certified organizations can add this module to the scope of their existing SFI Fiber Sourcing or Chain of Custody certification. While the optional EUDR module requires geolocation, SFI leaves it up to the organization to choose their preferred geolocation technology solution and provider.