Developing a certification system for urban forests in the United States

Abstract

Urban areas in the United States have seen an increase since the 1990s and further growth is projected. Recognizing sustainable urban forestry practices is critical for increasing the socio-ecological and economic resilience of cities. In this study, we review the historical, theoretical, and practical capacities as well as the procedural and substantive details of existent programs that recognize good forestry practices in the United States. Current systems of recognition like Tree City USA and Urban Forest Sustainability and Management Audit are limited because they do not have robust third-party verification procedures that define liabilities of non-conformance to urban forestry standards. Moreover, the process of standardizing principles, criteria, and indicators has not been as detailed in these existent urban recognition systems as in traditional forest certification systems like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). We provide guidelines towards establishing an urban forest certification system building on knowledge from existing networks and institutions. We hope that this study will guide urban forest managers, communities, private companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders that have recently shown significant interest in instituting a more holistic certification-based governance system of recognizing sustainable urban forestry. An important opportunity is available for urban systems that recognize and promote good forestry practices to learn from existent mechanisms of forest certification about potential and challenges faced on the ground in standardization, recognition, and verification governance.