SFI is TAKING A FIRM STANCE AGAINST DEFORESTATION/FOREST DEGRADATION

SFI, along with others worldwide, shares the commitment of ensuring forests remain as healthy and resilient 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.

The SFI Forest Management Standard, in place since January 2022, prevents deforestation, forest degradation, and does not support forest lands converted to other land uses. Given increasing customer and government demand, we have adopted formal definitions for “deforestation” as well as “forest degradation” that are consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM). These new definitions are mandatory for our SFI Forest Management Standard. Additional guidance was developed to demonstrate the link between the new definitions and SFI standard requirements. In addition, the SFI Board adopted a cut-off date policy of December 31, 2020 which aligns with SFI’s commitment to no deforestation and no forest degradation.  All requirements in the SFI Standard are subject to third-party audits.

SFI Board Policy on No Deforestation and No Degradation, including cut off date

Since 2015 the SFI Forest Management Standard prohibits deforestation and forest degradation through multiple requirements in the Standard.

The SFI Board reconfirmed its commitment to no deforestation and no forest degradation on March 20, 2024, by explicitly prohibiting certification to the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard on lands that are deforested and on practices that are causing forest degradation after December 31, 2020.

In the spirit of rehabilitating degraded lands and/or non-forest lands to sustainably managed forests, certification to the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard is allowed, as long as the current SFI certified organization did not cause the deforestation, and is rehabilitating the lands, and is meeting the requirements of the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard.

Definitions:

While the SFI Forest Management Standard has strong requirements to prevent forest degradation, definitions on “deforestation” as well as “forest degradation” were added on March 20, 2024 to strengthen SFI’s position on these critical topics. Additional guidance was also adopted to link the new definitions to SFI standard requirements.

SFI FOREST MANAGEMENT Standard Prevents Deforestation

The SFI Forest Management specifies SFI’s commitment to no-deforestation, indicating that “Forest lands converted to other land uses shall not be certified to this SFI Standard” through Performance Measure 1.3. 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. Additionally, Performance Measure 2.1 requires that, “Certified Organizations shall promptly reforest after final harvest.”

SFI FOREST MANAGEMENT Standard Prevents 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 Module with Supplemental Requirements to Support EUDR Compliance

The SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard and the SFI Chain of Custody Standard already 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.

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 the SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard With Supplemental Requirements to Support EUDR Compliance Module for companies certified to the SFI Fiber Sourcing and Chain of Custody Standards. SFI is also developing an optional module for the SFI 2022 Chain of Custody Standard to support EUDR compliance specifically for claims to be passed on through the supply chain. These optional EUDR modules apply to 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. Finally, some SFI certified organizations will not need optional SFI Modules to meet EUDR requirements, as they might have their own systems in place to provide the assurances.