Second Comment Opportunity: SFI Urban and Community Forestry Sustainability Standard

July 6, 2022

The second draft of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard is open for public comment until August 2, 2022. La Norme sont disponibles en français.

In 2020, SFI surveyed the urban and community forestry sector to determine the need for a new SFI urban and community forest certification standard. Over 600 people responded, and the overwhelming majority said yes. From this, SFI recruited experts in the urban and community forestry sector to form a develop Task Group. In 2021 the Task Group develop a first draft of a SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard and conducted an open public comment period to receive input. There were more than 500 comments from 121 individuals and organizations of which 18% were from municipal, 28% from non-profits, 16% from private or corporate, 24% from Federal, state, or county government, 7% from university or students, and 6% unknown. 8% of the commenters were from Canada.

The Task Group reviewed all comments from the first comment period, made revisions based on the input, and have produced a second draft of the SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard. Based on feedback the second draft is 25% more concise from the first draft. We also created definitions of key terms and guidance to assist with implementation.

SFI is seeking your input through this second comment period on the Standard. We want to know what you think about the 5 Principles, 16 Objectives, their associated Performance Measures, and Indicators. Visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFI2ndUFC to provide feedback.

Not only can you provide feedback through the above survey, but we are hosting three webinars to discuss the new Standard:

1. Introduction to the SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard – Thursday, July 7, 2022, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. Register to attend webinar 1.

2. Focus on Objectives 1 through 7 of the SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard – Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. Register to attend webinar 2.

3. Focus on Objectives 8 through 16 of the SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard – Thursday July 14, 2022, noon to 1:30 p.m. ET. Register to attend webinar 3.

We will have plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Interested in testing the standard with your organization? We are looking for opportunities to pilot the Standard. Email Paul Johnson if you are interested. Remember this final public comment survey will be open until August 2, 2022. Please share this opportunity with your network.

Contact:
Paul Johnson, BCMA, CF
Senior Director, Urban and Community Forestry
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Tel: +1 202 719 1389
email: [email protected]
www.forests.org