NEWS RELEASES

Madison, WI— The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) announced the winner of the 2022 SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award at the 2022 SFI/Project Learning Tree (PLT) Annual Conference today. The Committee was selected for its collaborative efforts in producing a series of four dynamic training videos that advance sustainable forestry and enhance understanding of SFI’s new standards requirements.

The videos describe the role of SFI certification in Quebec, explain SFI’s new climate-smart forestry objective, and offer best practices for conserving biodiversity and protecting health and safety. In addition, the videos also cover road building and maintenance, harvest planning, and the protection of sensitive sites. Watch a short video highlight. (All four videos are available in French on the Quebec SFI Implementation Committee training webpage.)

“These compelling new videos are going to help loggers and wood producers in Quebec further increase their knowledge of sustainable forestry, certification, and SFI’s new climate-smart objective,” says Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI. “That’s good news for the forest sector and for advancing environmental sustainability in the province.”

The Quebec SFI Implementation Committee is collaborating with the Federation of Forest Producers of Quebec to ensure the videos are accessible to all 134,000 woodlot owners in Quebec, who in turn will use them to enhance training for loggers they work with. A combination of online promotion and field visits will help publicize the videos. Individual loggers and other members of the forest sector will also have access. The Quebec SFI Implementation Committee will track access to the videos to help measure their impact. These videos were supported by the SFI Community Grants Program.

Loggers who are aware of their responsibility as professionals are better equipped to protect the environment. This underscores the importance of logger training as a core requirement in both the SFI Forest Management Standard and SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard. The promotion and use of qualified logging professionals is also a requirement of the SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard.

“This training addresses SFI’s new standards requirements, includes a section on climate change and is relevant for workers operating in public and private forests. Thanks to the support of our 10 partners, we expect more than 500 workers to use the platform and view these videos every year,” says Louis‑Serge Gagnon, Regional Fiber Manager, Westrock, and Chair of the Quebec SFI Implementation Committee.

The Quebec SFI Implementation Committee collaborated with several provincial partners to make this project possible. Their collaborative approach ensured that the videos are well adapted to all regions of Quebec’s vast forestlands. SFI-certified forests cover more than 31 million hectares (77 million acres), and over 73% of all certified forestland in the province.

About SFI Implementation Committees

SFI responds to local needs through SFI Implementation Committees at the provincial, state, and regional levels. These committees work with local, forestry, and professional associations, universities, government agencies, landowner groups, conservation groups, and many others. They play a vital role in promoting logger training, landowner outreach, youth and adult education, community engagement, the integrity of SFI’s work, and responsible forestry at local levels. Since 1995, SFI-certified organizations have contributed nearly $75 million to support local programs through SFI Implementation Committees.