The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) has launched revised standards for 2022. The revised standards are a result of a two-year process that reached out to industry, environmental, and social interests. The revised standards add some new requirements. The most relevant is the SFI Climate Smart Forestry and the SFI Fire Resilience and Awareness Objectives. These will require companies to monitor and demonstrate how they are meeting the detailed criteria and indicators used by the SFI Auditing process. Companies are audited by third parties on a regular basis to assure the public compliance with all the SFI Standards.
In West Virginia, The SFI State Implementation Committee oversees that role of SFI certified companies. A priority of the SFI SIC is logger training and landowner outreach.
West Virginia has over 340,000 acres that are SFI Forest Management certified and SFI Fiber Sourcing includes over 2.2 million tons of harvested wood that becomes SFI certified paper and wood products.
You’ve no doubt seen the SFI label often on many paper products assuring the consumer these companies are complying with the SFI Principle and Standards for sustainable forest management here in West Virginia.
