Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI)

”The SFI Community Grant Program has facilitated 83 community grants totaling $900K and over $5m when leveraged with project partners. These grants help connect people to the forests and have facilitated projects that benefit youth, women landowners, Indigenous communities, and many more. “Our SFI Conservation Grant Program has included more than 64 conservation grants totaling $4M from SFI, and $11M when leveraged with project partners organizations. These grants help increase knowledge about conservation outcomes on SFI’s footprint related primarily to climate, biodiversity and water. SFI is also the only certification that requires investment in conservation research. SFI-certified organizations report hundreds of conservation research projects each year. “Project Learning Tree is an initiative of SFI that advances environmental literacy, stewardship, and career pathways using trees and forests as windows on the world. The PLT network is active in all 50 U.S. states.” BVM: How does SFI address global sustainability challenges? Abusow: “We are applying our efforts to global sustainability challenges like climate in new, innovative ways. One of the largest issues our sector is now focused on is anything to do with climate and carbon. Our new standard – launched this year on Earth Day – specifically addresses carbon through a climate smart forestry objective and connects our work to a wide range of conservation and sustainability outcomes. The SFI Climate Smart Forestry Objective means that SFI-certified organizations will now be required to ensure forest management activities address climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. Our new SFI Fire Resilience and Awareness Objective means that SFI-certified organizations are now required to limit susceptibility of forests to undesirable impacts of wildfire and to raise community awareness of fire benefits, risks, and minimization measures. “Another important component of the SFI standards is Objective 8, Recognize and Respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights. The SFI standards promote respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, representative institutions, and traditional knowledge, and are aligned with the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Specific measures require that SFI-certified organizations be aware of traditional forest-related knowledge, such as known cultural heritage sites, the use of wood in traditional buildings and crafts, and flora that may be used in cultural practices for food, ceremonies, or medicine. “The forest sector is increasingly seen as critical for addressing broader sustainability issues and SFI has always been at the front of this trend. Our work fits neatly into the sustainability policies that are now frequently built into corporate business plans. The original connection was that we could provide assurance of sustainability for fiber-based supply chains but a company’s connection to SFI now also helps them meet objectives relative to ESG, DEI, and a broad range of sustainability goals.” BVM: What are the main priorities of your staff? Abusow: “We currently have almost 50 staff, which is huge growth over the last several years. We are focused on responsible supply chains, conservation elevation, and we have particularly grown in the space of environmental education and green career pathways. Project Learning Tree and Project Learning Tree Canada have expanded and are doing a top-notch job of growing skills and placing a diversity of youth in green jobs in the forest and conservation sector. Of great pride is the gender diversity of our staff and we are doing solid work in hiring more and more young adults from a variety of