CLIMATE ADAPTATION – REHABILITATION AND REFORESTATION

1. The economic activity has implemented physical and non-physical solutions (‘adaptation solutions’) that substantially reduce the most important physical climate risks that are material to that activity.

Addressed by responses to criteria below.

2. The physical climate risks that are material to the activity have been identified from those listed in Appendix A to this Annex by performing a robust climate risk and vulnerability assessment with the following steps: (a) screening of the activity to identify which physical climate risks from the list in Appendix A to this Annex may affect the performance of the economic activity during its expected lifetime;

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(b) where the activity is assessed to be at risk from one or more of the physical climate risks listed in Appendix A to this Annex, a climate risk and vulnerability assessment to assess the materiality of the physical climate risks on the economic activity;

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(c) an assessment of adaptation solutions that can reduce the identified physical climate risk.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

The climate risk and vulnerability assessment is proportionate to the scale of the activity and its expected lifespan, such that: (a) for activities with an expected lifespan of less than 10 years, the assessment is performed, at least by using climate projections at the smallest appropriate scale;

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(b) for all other activities, the assessment is performed using the highest available resolution, state-of-the-art climate projections across the existing range of future scenarios (24) consistent with the expected lifetime of the activity, including, at least, 10 to 30 year climate projections scenarios for major investments.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

3. The climate projections and assessment of impacts are based on best practice and available guidance and take into account the state-of-the-art science for vulnerability and risk analysis and related methodologies in line with the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports (25), scientific peer-reviewed publications and open source (26) or paying models.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

4. The adaptation solutions implemented: (a) do not adversely affect the adaptation efforts or the level of resilience to physical climate risks of other people, of nature, of cultural heritage, of assets and of other economic activities;

Performance Measure 1.1. Certified Organizations shall ensure that forest management plans include long-term harvest levels that are sustainable and consistent with appropriate growth-and-yield models.

Indicator 1. Forest management planning at a level appropriate to the size and scale of the operation, including: i. consideration of non-timber issues such as recreation, tourism, pilot projects and economic incentive programs to promote water protection, carbon storage, bioenergy feedstock production, or biological diversity conservation, or to address climate-induced ecosystem change.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(b) favour nature-based solutions (27) or rely on blue or green infrastructure (28) to the extent possible;

Solutions (adaptation strategies) are based on the full suite of sustainable forest management requirements as contained in the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard.

(c) are consistent with local, sectoral, regional or national adaptation plans and strategies;

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(d) are monitored and measured against pre-defined indicators and remedial action is considered where those indicators are not met;

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

(e) where the solution implemented is physical and consists in an activity for which technical screening criteria have been specified in this Annex, the solution complies with the do no significant harm technical screening criteria for that activity.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

5. In order for an activity to be considered as an enabling activity as referred to in Article 11(1), point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, the economic operator demonstrates, through an assessment of current and future climate risks, including uncertainty and based on robust data, that the activity provides a technology, product, service, information, or practice, or promotes their uses with one of the following primary objectives: (a) increasing the level of resilience to physical climate risks of other people, of nature, of cultural heritage, of assets and of other economic activities;

Performance Measure 2.4. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect forests from damaging agents, such as environmentally or economically undesirable levels of wildfire, pests, diseases, and invasive species, to maintain and improve long-term forest health, productivity, and economic viability.

Performance Measure 10.1 On the forests they own or manage, Certified Organizations shall limit susceptibility to undesirable impacts of wildfire, promote healthy and resilient forest conditions through management techniques, actions and/or policies, and support restoration of forests following wildfire damage.

(b) contributing to adaptation efforts of other people, of nature, of cultural heritage, of assets and of other economic activities.

Performance Measure 10.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving government agencies, SFI Implementation Committees, Project Learning Tree, or other partners, engage in efforts to raise awareness of and take action towards benefits of fire management and minimization of undesirable impacts of wildfire.