CLIMATE MITIGATION – FOREST MANAGEMENT

Performance Measure 12.2. Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees, associations or other partners develop, contribute to, or use national, state, provincial or regional analyses in support of their sustainable forestry programs.

Indicator 6. Road construction, skidding layout, and harvest plans designed to minimize impacts to soil productivity and soil health.

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.

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 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.

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

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 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.

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 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.

Objective 10 - Fire Resilience and Awareness

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.

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 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.

The use of pesticides is reduced and alternative approaches or techniques, which may include non-chemical alternatives to pesticides, are favored, in accordance with Directive 2009/128/EC, with exception of occasions where the use of pesticides is needed to control outbreaks of pests and of diseases. The activity minimized the use of fertilizers and does not use manure. The activity complies with Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 or national rules on fertilizers or soil improvers for agricultural use.

the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and of active ingredients that are listed as classification Ia (‘extremely hazardous’) or Ib (‘highly hazardous’) in the WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard**; the activity complies with the relevant national law on active ingredients Well documented and verifiable measures are taken to avoid the use of active ingredients that are listed in Annex I, part A, of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021(48), the Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and of active ingredients that are listed as classification Ia (‘extremely hazardous’) or Ib (‘highly hazardous’) in the WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard(49). The activity complies with the relevant national law on active ingredients.

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 11.1. Certified Organizations shall comply with applicable federal, provincial, state, and local forestry and environmental laws and regulations.

(i) the use of the forest reproductive material leads to favourable and appropriate ecosystem condition (such as climate, soil criteria, and vegetation zone, forest fire resilience);(ii) the native species currently present on the site are not anymore adapted to projected climatic and pedo-hydrological conditions; (d) ensuring the maintenance and improvement of physical, chemical and biological quality of the soil; (e) promoting biodiversity-friendly practices that enhance forests’ natural processes; (f) excluding the conversion of high-biodiverse ecosystems into less biodiverse ones; (g) ensuring the diversity of associated habitats and species linked to the forest; (h) ensuring the diversity of stand structures and maintenance Detailed information referred to in point 1.2.(i) includes provisions for maintaining and possibly enhancing biodiversity in accordance with national and local provisions, including the following: - (a) ensuring the good conservation status of habitat and species, maintenance of typical habitat species; (b) excluding the use or release of invasive alien species; (c) excluding the use of non-native species unless it can be demonstrated that: (i) the use of the forest reproductive material leads to favourable and appropriate ecosystem condition (such as climate, soil criteria, and vegetation zone, forest fire resilience); (ii) the native species currently present on the site are not anymore adapted to projected climatic and pedo-hydrological conditions; (d) ensuring the maintenance and improvement of physical, chemical and biological quality of the soil; (e) promoting biodiversity-friendly practices that enhance forests’ natural processes; (f) excluding the conversion of high-biodiverse ecosystems into less biodiverse ones; (g) ensuring the diversity of associated habitats and species linked to the forest; (h) ensuring the diversity of stand structures and maintenance or enhancing of mature stage stands and dead wood.

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.