Forest Certification
» About Forest Certification
About Forest Certification
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We all use forest products in our everyday lives, yet we want healthy, well managed forests. Increasingly, consumers are turning to forest certification to provide an extra level of assurance that the wood products they buy are coming from forest lands that are being managed with a high degree of ecological stewardship and social responsibility.
At the present time, there are several competing science based, third party forest certification programs. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) program is based on the premise that responsible environmental behavior and sound business decisions can co-exist. The American Tree Farm System has a certification program targeted mostly at small, non-industrial forest landowners.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international forest certification organization headquartered in Bonn, Germany. FSC sanctions the work of third-party certifiers such as the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program, and the Scientific Certification System's Green Cross label.
Not all wood products from well-managed forests are certified, nor do they need to be. In California, especially, strict regulations already ensure that our forests are being sustainably managed. Still, you can think of certification as an extra stamp of environmental approval.