The US Green Building Council released for public comment a 3rd round of draft benchmarks to evaluate forest certification programs.

At SFI, we continue to urge the USGBC to end a forest certification policy that discriminates against North American forests and against most of the independent forest certification standards used in the United States and Canada.

We’ve just released a detailed statement on these benchmarks and the USGBC process – you can read it on our main website here.  Here is an excerpt….

As currently drafted, the USGBC’s complex benchmark system to may result in the continued exclusion of independent forest certification standards used in North America, including SFI, the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), and the Canadian Standards Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC).

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Talk about a rewarding start to 2010! We just launched our new standard – check out the summary of significant revisions on our website and our news release with all the details.

You’ll see our new standard improves conservation of biodiversity, recognizes emerging issues such as climate change and bioenergy, and expands logger training in North America. It has made our fiber sourcing requirements stronger, and complements SFI activities aimed at avoiding controversial or illegal offshore fiber sources.

The review that led to the new standard certainly demonstrated the power of our partnerships – kudos to everyone involved.

We also began 2010 as the largest single forest certification standard in the world – more than 180 million acres (73 million hectares) are certified to the SFI forest management standard in North America.

Our new standard, our expanded partnerships and our growth mean we are in a great position to keep leading the push for improved forest practices and more certified forests.

This puts us in a position of responsibility that we take very seriously. We may not certify forests outside North America but our work definitely has a global reach, and a global impact. We cannot act alone, but we certainly can remain leaders in helping raise awareness of the value of forest certification.

In 2010, we’ll be reaching out to anyone who cares about forest management to work with us – not to promote one standard but to show how credible forest certification can make a difference. I hope you’ll join us.

Kathy

Check out Conservation Fund President and CEO Larry Selzer’s great “guest blog” on CNBC.com. He outlines the critical role of forests in combating climate change and providing many other benefits. He also explains the importance of credible forest certification programs such as SFI and FSC

One of the things I absolutely love about the SFI program is our work with communities – it’s a natural extension to any forest management activities. Our partnerships with local Habitat for Humanity affiliates capture this spirit perfectly.

At last count, the SFI program and its SFI Implementation Committees have been or are involved in Habitat projects in Minnesota, Maine, Tennessee, Manitoba and Ontario. Program participants have volunteered hundreds of hours of their time, and companies have donated thousands of dollars worth of products.

There are so many pluses it is hard to know where to start. Through Habitat, we are helping put low-income working families into their own homes. I was given a chance to wield a hammer at a Build Day in Hibbing, Minnesota, last summer, and saw for myself how much it meant for the new homeowner to build her own home with the help of her community.

The Manitoba and Ontario projects are special because both involve Aboriginal organizations – Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg has partnered with the Manitoba Métis Federation and Habitat for Humanity Northumberland is working with Alderville First Nation in southern Ontario to build the first Habitat for Humanity home in a First Nation community in Canada.

This is a great way to provide safe, healthy housing for First Nations people. Chief James Marsden of Alderville First Nation put it perfectly when he said: “We are very pleased to establish partnerships like these with businesses and the community because it allows us to create an affordable home for an Alderville First Nation family. Partnering with SFI also allows us to reinforce our respect for land and forests.”

Habitat for Humanity is a fantastic organization, and I am proud we can support them. Their guiding principles – simple, decent, affordable – say a lot about what they represent. And our involvement is a great fit because Habitat is increasing its emphasis on sustainability, and our donated forest products are from responsible sources.

I want to thank all the SFI companies and individuals who have pitched in to promote Habitat partnerships, and encourage you to check out the Habitat for Humanity website to see if there are opportunities to help out in your area.

The climate change bill pending in the U.S. Congress should include provisions that prevent the “destructive dynamic” of deforestation.  So says the New York Times in a recent editorial.  The editorial included some mind-boggling stats to support its case:   “Deforestation accounts for one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — about the same as China’s emissions, more than the emissions generated by all of the world’s cars and trucks. And the world is doing far too little to stop it. An estimated 30 million acres of rain forest disappear every year, destroying biodiversity and pouring billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

A major contributor to deforestation is illegal logging, which is exactly what forest certification programs like SFI are designed to avoid.  In fact, voluntary third-party forest certification began in the 1990s in response to market concerns about forest management and illegal logging, primarily in developing countries. In the U.S, The State of America’s Forests report prepared by the Society of American Foresters (and based on U.S. Forest Service data) concludes that forested acres in the U.S. have remained relatively stable for the past 100 years (about 755 million acres).  And while it’s true that tremendous progress is being made, the fact remains that only 10% of the world’s forests are now certified.  SFI is doing its part address the remaining 90%.