• 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.1. The area on which the activity takes place is covered by an afforestation plan of a duration of at least five years, or the minimum period prescribed in national law, developed prior to the start of the activity and continuously updated, until this area matches the definition of forest as set out in national law or where not available, is in line with the FAO definition of forest.

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    Performance Measure 1.4. Certified Organizations shall not afforest in locations which negatively impact ecologically important natural communities, threatened and endangered species, or native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Indicator 1. Any afforestation activity must include an evaluation of the proposed site to determine the presence of: a. ecologically important natural communities, or b. threatened and endangered species, or c. native natural communities that could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Indicator 2. Afforestation shall not occur on that location if the evaluation determines a negative impact to: a. ecologically important natural communities, or b. threatened and endangered species, or c. native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    1

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.2 (a) description of the area according to its gazetting in the land registry;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.2 (e) definition of the forest habitat context, including main existing and intended forest tree species, and their extent and distribution;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.2 (f) compartments, roads, rights of way and other public access, physical features including waterways, areas under legal and other restrictions;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.2 (g) measures deployed to establish and maintain the good condition of forest ecosystems;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    OBJECTIVE 2. FOREST HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

    OBJECTIVE 3. PROTECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF WATER RESOURCES

    OBJECTIVE 4. CONSERVATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

    OBJECTIVE 5. MANAGEMENT OF VISUAL QUALITY AND RECREATIONAL BENEFITS

    OBJECTIVE 9. CLIMATE SMART FORESTRY

    OBJECTIVE 10. FIRE RESILIENCE AND AWARENESS

    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.

    Performance Measure 1.2. Certified Organizations shall not convert one forest cover type to another forest cover type unless an assessment has been conducted to determine ecological impacts and provide appropriate justification.

    Performance Measure 1.3. Certified Organizations shall not have within the scope of their certification to this SFI Standard, forest lands that have been converted to non-forest land use.

    Performance Measure 1.4. Certified Organizations shall not afforest in locations which negatively impact ecologically important natural communities, threatened and endangered species, or native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Performance Measure 2.1. Certified Organizations shall promptly reforest after final harvest.

    Performance Measure 2.2. Certified Organizations shall have a program to minimize chemical use required to achieve management objectives while protecting employees, neighbors, the public and the environment, including wildlife and aquatic habitats.

    Performance Measure 2.3. Certified Organizations shall implement practices that protect and maintain forest and soil productivity and soil health.

    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 2.5. Certified Organizations that deploy improved planting stock, including varietal seedlings, shall use best scientific methods.

    Performance Measure 3.1. Certified Organizations shall meet or exceed all applicable federal, provincial, state and local water quality laws and meet or exceed best management practices.

    Performance Measure 3.2. Certified Organizations shall implement water, wetland, and riparian protection programs based on climate, soil type, terrain, vegetation, ecological function, harvesting system, state best management practices (BMPs), provincial guidelines and other applicable factors

    Performance Measure 4.1. Certified Organizations shall conserve biological diversity.

    Performance Measure 4.2. Certified Organizations shall protect threatened and endangered species, critically imperiled and imperiled species (Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values), and natural communities, and old-growth forests.

    Performance Measure 4.3. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect ecologically important sites in a manner that takes into account their unique qualities.

    Performance Measure 4.4. Certified Organizations shall apply knowledge gained through research, science, technology, field experience and the results of monitoring of the effectiveness of conservation-related programs to manage wildlife habitat and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity.

    Performance Measure 5.1. Certified Organizations shall manage the impact of harvesting on visual quality

    Performance Measure 5.2. Certified Organizations shall manage the size, shape, and placement of clearcut harvests.

    Performance Measure 5.3. Certified Organizations shall adopt a green-up requirement or alternative methods that provide for visual quality.

    Performance Measure 5.4. Certified Organizations shall support and promote recreational opportunities for the public.

    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.

    Performance Measure 9.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address opportunities to mitigate the effects associated with its forest operations on climate change.

    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.

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.2 (h) consideration of societal issues (including preservation of landscape, consultation of stakeholders in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in national law);

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    OBJECTIVE 14. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND LANDOWNER OUTREACH

    OBJECTIVE 15: PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

    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.

    Performance Measure 14.1. Certified Organizations shall support and promote efforts by consulting foresters, state, provincial and federal agencies, state or local groups, professional societies, conservation organizations, Indigenous Peoples and governments, community groups, sporting organizations, labor, universities, extension agencies, the American Tree Farm System® and/or other landowner cooperative programs to apply principles of sustainable forest management.

    Performance Measure 14.2. Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees support and promote, at the state, provincial or other appropriate levels, mechanisms for public outreach, education and involvement related to sustainable forest management.

    Performance Measure 14.3. Certified Organizations shall, individually and/or through cooperative efforts including SFI Implementation Committees, establish, at the state, provincial, or other appropriate levels, procedures to address concerns raised by loggers, consulting foresters, employees, unions, stakeholders, the public or other Certified Organizations regarding management that appears inconsistent with the SFI standards principles and objectives.

    Performance Measure 15.1. Certified Organizations with forest management responsibilities on public lands shall participate in the development of public land planning and management processes.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.3. When the area becomes a forest, the afforestation plan is followed by a subsequent forest management plan or an equivalent instrument, as set out in national law or, where national law does not define a forest management plan or equivalent instrument, as referred to in the FAO definition of ‘forest area with long-term forest management plan’ (4). The forest management plan or the equivalent instrument covers a period of 10 years or more and is continuously updated.

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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: a. a long-term resources analysis; b. a periodic or ongoing forest inventory; c. a land classification system; d. biodiversity at landscape scales; e. soils inventory and maps, where available; f. access to and use of growth-and-yield modeling capabilities; g. up-to-date maps or a geographic information system (GIS); h. recommended sustainable harvest levels for areas available for harvest; and 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.

    Indicator 2. Documented current harvest trends fall within long-term sustainable levels identified in the forest management plan.

    Indicator 3. A forest inventory system and a method to calculate growth and yield is used to determine annual and/or periodic harvest levels.

    Indicator 4. Periodic updates of forest inventory and recalculation of planned harvests to account for changes in growth due to productivity increases or decreases, including but not limited to: improved data, long-term drought, fertilization, climate change, changes in forest land ownership and tenure, or forest health.

    Indicator 5. Documentation of forest management (such as: planting, fertilization and thinning) consistent with assumptions in harvest plans.

    Indicator 6. Assessment of the local or regional social, environmental, and economic effects of forest management operations contained in the forest management plan.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4. Information is provided on the following points that are not already documented in the forest management plan or equivalent system: (a) management goals, including major constraints (5);

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (b) general strategies and activities planned to reach the management goals, including expected operations over the whole forest cycle;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (c) definition of the forest habitat context, including main existing and intended forest tree species, and their extent and distribution;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (d) definition of the area according to its gazetting in the land registry;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (e)      compartments, roads, rights of way and other public access, physical features including waterways, areas under legal and other restrictions;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (f) measures deployed to maintain the good condition of forest ecosystems;

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    OBJECTIVE 2. FOREST HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

    OBJECTIVE 3. PROTECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF WATER RESOURCES

    OBJECTIVE 4. CONSERVATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

    OBJECTIVE 5. MANAGEMENT OF VISUAL QUALITY AND RECREATIONAL BENEFITS

    OBJECTIVE 9. CLIMATE SMART FORESTRY

    OBJECTIVE 10. FIRE RESILIENCE AND AWARENESS

    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.

    Performance Measure 1.2. Certified Organizations shall not convert one forest cover type to another forest cover type unless an assessment has been conducted to determine ecological impacts and provide appropriate justification.

    Performance Measure 1.3. Certified Organizations shall not have within the scope of their certification to this SFI Standard, forest lands that have been converted to non-forest land use.

    Performance Measure 1.4. Certified Organizations shall not afforest in locations which negatively impact ecologically important natural communities, threatened and endangered species, or native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Performance Measure 2.1. Certified Organizations shall promptly reforest after final harvest.

    Performance Measure 2.2. Certified Organizations shall have a program to minimize chemical use required to achieve management objectives while protecting employees, neighbors, the public and the environment, including wildlife and aquatic habitats.

    Performance Measure 2.3. Certified Organizations shall implement practices that protect and maintain forest and soil productivity and soil health.

    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 2.5. Certified Organizations that deploy improved planting stock, including varietal seedlings, shall use best scientific methods.

    Performance Measure 3.1. Certified Organizations shall meet or exceed all applicable federal, provincial, state and local water quality laws and meet or exceed best management practices.

    Performance Measure 3.2. Certified Organizations shall implement water, wetland, and riparian protection programs based on climate, soil type, terrain, vegetation, ecological function, harvesting system, state best management practices (BMPs), provincial guidelines and other applicable factors

    Performance Measure 4.1. Certified Organizations shall conserve biological diversity.

    Performance Measure 4.2. Certified Organizations shall protect threatened and endangered species, critically imperiled and imperiled species (Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values), and natural communities, and old-growth forests.

    Performance Measure 4.3. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect ecologically important sites in a manner that takes into account their unique qualities.

    Performance Measure 4.4. Certified Organizations shall apply knowledge gained through research, science, technology, field experience and the results of monitoring of the effectiveness of conservation-related programs to manage wildlife habitat and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity.

    Performance Measure 5.1. Certified Organizations shall manage the impact of harvesting on visual quality

    Performance Measure 5.2. Certified Organizations shall manage the size, shape, and placement of clearcut harvests.

    Performance Measure 5.3. Certified Organizations shall adopt a green-up requirement or alternative methods that provide for visual quality.

    Performance Measure 5.4. Certified Organizations shall support and promote recreational opportunities for the public.

    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.

    Performance Measure 9.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address opportunities to mitigate the effects associated with its forest operations on climate change.

    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.

    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.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.4 (g) consideration of societal issues (including preservation of landscape, consultation of stakeholders in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in national law);

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    OBJECTIVE 6. PROTECTION OF SPECIAL SITES

    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.

    Performance Measure 1.2. Certified Organizations shall not convert one forest cover type to another forest cover type unless an assessment has been conducted to determine ecological impacts and provide appropriate justification.

    Performance Measure 6.1. Certified Organizations shall have a program to identify special sites and manage and protect them in a manner appropriate for their unique features.

    Indicator 1. Use of information such as existing natural heritage data, expert advice or stakeholder consultation, or consultation with Indigenous Peoples in identifying or selecting special sites for protection.

    2

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.5 (b) the activity follows the “Pan-European Guidelines for Afforestation and Reforestation with a special focus on the provisions of the UNFCCC” (7).

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    Performance Measure 1.4. Certified Organizations shall not afforest in locations which negatively impact ecologically important natural communities, threatened and endangered species, or native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Indicator 1. Any afforestation activity must include an evaluation of the proposed site to determine the presence of: a. ecologically important natural communities, or b. threatened and endangered species, or c. native natural communities that could be at risk of becoming rare.

    Indicator 2. Afforestation shall not occur on that location if the evaluation determines a negative impact to: a. ecologically important natural communities, or b. threatened and endangered species, or c. native natural communities which could be at risk of becoming rare.

    1

  • 1) Information is provided on the following, documented in an afforestation plan and subsequent forest management plan or equivalent document:

    1.8. The afforestation plan and the subsequent forest management plan or equivalent instrument provide for monitoring that ensures the correctness of the information contained in the plan, in particular as regards the data relating to the involved area.

    OBJECTIVE 1. FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING

    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.

    2