Sustainable Forestry Initiative Research Articles

A Landscape-Level Geographic Information System (GIS) Analysis of Streamside Management Zones on the Cumberland Plateau

Abstract In this study, we developed and tested a geographic information system methodology to measure the width and slope of streamside management zones (SMZs). We also assessed the compliance of SMZs on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee with the quantitative portions of state best management practices and the sustainable forestry standards used by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We found that using different standards greatly affected overall SMZ compliance and that FSC-level compliance varied as a function of type and resident status of forest owner.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s impact on stumpage markets in the US South

Using survey data and an equilibrium displacement model, we estimate the market and economic impacts of the American Forest and Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) on stumpage markets in the US South. We examine four timber product markets: softwood pulpwood, softwood sawtimber, hardwood pulpwood, and hardwood sawtimber. In each market we calculate changes in producer and consumer welfare using the equilibrium displacement model that accounts for reductions in timber inventories caused by SFI compliance. We find that SFI compliance costs the US South's economy about $36 million annually. SFI-compliant stumpage producers lose more than $33 million each year in producer surplus as a result of SFI compliance, and consumers lose about $12 million annually in consumer surplus due to higher product prices. These costs are offset partially by benefits to nonindustrial private forest producers, non-SFI-compliant industry producers, and public forest producers, who collectively gain about $10 million in producer surplus annually as a result of higher stumpage prices.

Assessment of Sustainability in Intensively Managed Forested Landscapes: A Case Study in Eastern Texas

Abstract We developed a methodology to analyze the effects of management practices on landscape structure and function to be used in the assessment of sustainability in intensively managed forest landscapes. It is based on modeling and simulation of landscape and stand structure as well as biological and physical processes. The methodology includes a landscape structure model and several forest stand-level models to simulate the dynamics of landscapes and stands as a function of management rules. It also includes habitat models to evaluate landscape quality and spatial characteristics of vertebrate habitat, and a hydrologic model to simulate water and sediment yield at the subarea and watershed levels. The application of this methodology to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program in eastern Texas indicated that this is an effective way to evaluate effects of sustainable forestry programs on landscape structure and processes. During simulation years, the habitat of pine warbler, the species used as an example to illustrate the methodology, became apparently fragmented under the SFI scenario. This fragmentation was caused mainly by narrow, forested streamside management zones dissecting pine stands and should have little negative influence on the pine warbler habitat. Sediment yield at the landscape level decreased by the implementation of SFI measures, particularly by the reduction of channel degradation. FOR. SCI. 51(4):321–333.

Impacts of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Landscape Level Measures on Hydrological Processes

The effects on hydrological processes of the application of the landscape level measures included in the sustainable forestry initiative (SFI) program were analyzed through simulation. A landscape scenario where limitation of harvesting units’ size, imposition of a green-up interval, and establishment of streamside management zones (SMZ) were simulated was compared with a reference scenario where no SFI rules were followed. An intensively managed forested landscape located in East Texas, USA, was used as the study area. The HARVEST landscape model was used to simulate landscape pattern and a modified version of the APEX model was used to simulate hydrological processes. Water and sediment yields were generally small within the observation period and most of the runoff and erosion observed occurred during intense storm events. Water and sediment yield at the subarea level and water yield at the watershed level were similar in both scenarios. However, sediment yield at the watershed level was higher in the non-SFI scenario. The differences were due to the reduction in channel erosion resulting from the presence of SMZs. The effect of buffer zones in terms of sediment deposition was not different between scenarios, which can be attributed to the level slopes of the study area. Landscape measures of the SFI program, namely buffer zones, seem important in reducing channel degradation, particularly during major storm events, in intensively managed forest landscapes in East Texas.

Forest Certification of State and University Lands in North Carolina: A Comparison

Abstract North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources (DFR) recently received both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification for their forests. Meeting SFI standards required better environmental management systems, improved use of best management practices, and better recordkeeping but few subsequent forest management changes. FSC required about the same environmental system changes but more forest management changes to favor future natural stand management and biodiversity protection. Costs included changes in forest management and recordkeeping to achieve forest certification, inspection expenses, prescribed changes in forest management, forgone timber revenues, and more stakeholder consultation. Benefits can include an improved professional reputation, better worker safety and training, better records and processes, more active public involvement, enhanced knowledge for outreach, better environmental management systems, more holistic management, and perhaps higher timber prices or greater market access.

SFI: Sustainable Forestry Initiative Program

SFI: Sustainable Forestry Initiative Program

The institutional design of forest certification standards initiatives and its influence on the role of science: the case of forest genetic resources

In the 1990s a wide array of non-governmental certification initiatives emerged as a way to promote the sustainable management of resources in sectors such as fisheries and forestry. In this paper, we examine two related questions about these initiatives: how does the institutional design of certification initiatives affect the way science is used in the development of certification standards and in whose interest is science employed? Using the empirical case of forest certification and the specific standards various initiatives have created to address the management of forest genetic resources, we show how structural aspects of decision-making processes affects the standards adopted and the rationalization for their appropriateness. Two basic models of decision-making—stakeholder participation and technical expertise—are discussed in relation to three certification initiatives active in North America—the Canadian Standards Association, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. By examining the standards these initiatives set for the management of forest genetic resources, we illustrate how two dimensions of science—uncertainty and the logic of cause and effect—are used to rationalize cautious and rigid versus flexible and discretionary standards for the management of forest genetic resources. Our findings indicate that the design or structure of certification decision-making processes, and their embedded balance of authority, mediate the form of standards initiatives will justify on the basis of science.

Important Environment Challenges for the U.S. Paper Industry

Although, in recent years, other issues have tended to overshadow environmental concerns in the United States, pulp and paper companies continue to be faced with a large and still-increasing number of environmental regulations. Compliance with recently finalized water and air pollution regulations (the Cluster Rule) has already cost the industry several billion dollars. As a result of these rules, essentially all paper-grade kraft mills in the U.S. have converted to ECF bleaching. Compliance with regulations on dilute emissions of hazardous air pollutants (e. g. methanol) and expected rules on boiler emissions of particulates, mercury, and hydrogen chloride will also be costly and require complex compliance monitoring and record keeping systems.These regulatory compliance issues come at a time when the industry is having to respond to intensified pressure from stakeholders in the areas of forestry practices, recycling, and climate change. The AF & PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Standard continue to evolve and gain broad acceptance. The U. S. industry's goal of recovering 50% of used paper for recycling has proved challenging but it is a goal to which the industry remains committed. To address concerns about climate change, some companies have joined voluntary programs to reduce emissions and the forest products industry is considering an invitation from the U. S. government to enter into a voluntary, sector-wide climate change agreement.

Law Making by Global Civil Society: The Forest Certification Prototype

Forest certification is a process through which transnational networks of diverse actors define and enforce standards for the management of forests around the world. Important forest certification programs currently include the Forest Stewardship Council, the Pan-European Forest Certification Scheme, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Products from certified forests usually carry a logo intended to signify that they were produced in an environmentally and sometimes socially acceptable manner. In seeking to verify for society that the activities of certified forest enterprises are acceptable, certification programs take on the important public roles of (1) setting standards for proper behavior and (2) ensuring conformance with the standards. They do not rely on the policy formulation or enforcement mechanisms of nation states. Rather, they develop standards through their own organizations and enforce them with their own institutional mechanisms. Because the environmental policy-making and enforcement functions assumed by certification programs have long been the purview of governments, the initial challenge is how to conceptualize certification programs. Given that they are not governmental initiatives, much existing literature describes certification programs as 'market mechanisms.' But this is true only in the loosest sense, in that certification programs seek to us market signals to restructure producers' access to consumers. At base, however, the promoters of forest certification have not been driven by market incentives, but rather have attempted to restructure them to achieve environmental and social ideals. One theoretical construct commonly applied to non-governmental and non-market organizations seeking to shape social behavior is that of 'civil society.' This paper aims to understand forest certification in terms of civil society theory. Moreover, since certification programs seek to achieve long-term regulation of forest management, often using law-like institutions, the paper explores the degree to which certification programs can be seen as making law. The paper uses a mutual illumination methodology. Starting from the hypothesis that forest certification is part of a larger process by which institutions of global civil society are being constructed, it draws upon global civil society scholarship to illuminate important social dimensions of forest certification. At the same time, research on forest certification is used to suggest some of the prospects and challenges facing global civil society. Next, the premise that forest certification is an emergent form of environmental law is subjected to a similar mutual-illumination strategy, using legal scholarship to examine forest certification, and also using forest certification scholarship to reflect back on law. The paper critiques forest certification in terms of efficacy, adaptability, coherence, and legitimacy. It concludes that while forest certification has some important lessons to learn from environmental law, it may also end up teaching, reshaping and ultimately expanding the reach of environmental law.

Combining Tabu Search and Genetic Algorithm Heuristic Techniques to Solve Spatial Harvest Scheduling Problems

Abstract The performance of two new heuristics that combine tabu search with a genetic crossover technique was examined for their usefulness in solving spatially constrained harvest scheduling problems. One heuristic utilized tabu search with 1-opt moves and a genetic crossover technique (TS/GA), and the other utilized tabu search with both 1-opt and 2-opt moves and a genetic crossover technique (TS2/GA). The heuristics were tested on four problems. Three problems used the simple unit-restriction model (URM) to portray greenup constraints, allowing them to be solved with mathematical programming techniques and thus providing a benchmark to compare against the solutions produced by the heuristic techniques. These were considered hypothetical problems, since the datasets were grids, and the age classes were assigned with three different rules. The fourth problem uses an operational dataset and includes both a maximum opening size constraint, which limits the size of an individual opening, and a maximum average opening size constraint, which represents the greenup constraint contained in the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) Sustainable Forestry Initiative (AF&PA 2000). The greenup constraints contained in these problems accurately portray the greenup constraints facing the forest industry in the United States. For the three hypothetical problems, the TS/GA technique found solutions with an objective function value between 96.6% and 99.1% of an estimated optimal value, and between 93.4% to 94.4% of a relaxed linear programming value. The TS2/GA found better solutions for all three hypothetical problems, with the objective function values between 98.2% and 99.7% of the estimated optimal value and the 96.3% to 97.2% of the relaxed linear programming value. Compared with a general tabu search technique that used 1-opt moves (TS), adding the genetic crossover technique resulted in a 2% increase in the objective function value, and adding the 2-opt intensification capability resulted in a further 1.5% improvement. A similar pattern was observed when the problem using the operational dataset was solved. The addition of the genetic crossover technique did not increase the time required to produce a solution to any particular problem, yet the addition of the 2-opt procedure did. TS2/GA required about twice as much time as did TS or TS/GA when applied to the three hypothetical datasets, and 67% more time when applied to the problem using the operational dataset. FOR. SCI. 48(1):35–46.

The economic impact of green-up constraints in the southeastern United States

Green-up, or adjacency, requirements are a common constraint in forestry. The American Forest and Paper Association has developed a Sustainable Forestry Initiative that includes a green-up constraint which limits the average clearcut opening to 48 ha for 3 years or until the average height of the regenerated trees is >1.4 m. In addition to constraining the average clearcut size, many forestry companies in the southeastern USA voluntarily limit their maximum clearcut size to between 60 and 90 ha. In this research, a heuristic algorithm was used to develop tactical forest plans that consider both the maximum and average clearcut sizes. Economic effects of the green-up constraints were estimated for situations where intensive management can reduce the length of the green-up time from 3 to 2 years on a 21 600 ha ownership in Georgia (USA). For a 60-ha maximum opening size, this reduction in green-up time from 3 to 2 years resulted in an additional US$ 66 600 in present net worth (PNW) over a 10-year analysis period. This corresponds to a US$ 10 per harvested ha, or a 0.8% increase in PNW. The benefit gained by reducing the length of the green-up period is less with a 90-ha maximum clearcut size, where PNW increases by US$ 45 600, or US$ 6.70 per harvested ha, a 0.5% increase. While the total volume per period was near the volume goal produced by a strategic forest plan, the spatial restrictions and the desire to maximize net present value resulted in lower volume of timber products (sawlogs and chip-and-saw logs) from older forest stands. A sensitivity analysis showed that an increase in price or yield further reduced the economic incentive for the reduction of the length of the green-up constraint. As price or volume decreased below expectations, however, the incentive to use intensive forest management practices to reduce the length of the green-up constraint became more attractive, since the differences between a 2-year and 3-year green-up time requirement may be large enough to pay for more intensive management practices.

'Private' Environmental Regulation, Human Rights, and Community

Private organizations have recently established numerous programs aimed at improving the environmental performance of industry. Many of the new programs seek to define and enforce standards for environmental management, and to make it difficult for producers not to participate in them. They claim, explicitly and implicitly, to promote the public interest. They take on functions generally performed by government regulatory programs, and may change or even displace government programs. Private programs thus have the potential to significantly reshape domestic and international policy institutions. This paper describes three major private environmental regulatory programs applicable to forestry and discusses their implications for environment, human rights, and community: -the Forest Stewardship Council's forest and forest product certification program -the International Organization for Standardization's 14000 program -the American Forest and Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative The paper concludes, among other things, that each of the programs has some potential for improving the environmental performance of forest enterprises, but that only the FSC program offers much hope of strengthening the protection of human rights and the participation of communities in forestry. Indeed the ISO and AF&PA programs seem designed to narrow the human rights concerns that firms must take into account, and to dampen the participation of communities by helping firms to manage community concerns more effectively. If one program were to prevail, it would likely be the ISO program, based on its superior organizational and financial resources. However, rather than being entirely separate, these and other programs compete with and complement each other in a larger regulatory arena. It is possible that one or more hybrids combining elements several programs will emerge over time. The paper also discusses problems posed by the growing role of private regulatory programs for equity, law, and democracy.

Sustainable Forestry Initiative: Toward a Higher Standard

Abstract The AF&PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) has been substantially improved in 1999. The program has been reformatted as a formal standard, and now offers a licensing program for nonmembers and a voluntary verification process through which AF&PA members and SFI licensees can be third-party verified to the standard. The ISO Technical Report on Forestry (ISO/TR 14061) outlines how foresters can incorporate performance-based standards, such as the SFI, into their ISO 14001 environmental management system policy, objectives, and targets.

AF&PA's sustainable forestry initiative SM—a bold new program that works for the U.S.A.

The close of 1994 marked the end of one era and the start of another for members of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). This new beginning was ushered in by AF&PA when its members established a major industry goal: to enhance the environment by visibly changing the practice of forestry on industrial forest land, especially as it pertains to water quality, wildlife and biodiversity. Equally important, AF&PA members are engaging loggers and private woodland owners in an ongoing dialogue to encourage reforestation, to use environmental Best Management Practices, and to improve the appearance of harvesting operations, particularly in highly visible areas. AF&PA members are on their way toward meeting the goal of sustainable forestry. Through the collection and analysis of reports from individual companies, AF&PA compiled data on environmental performance across the industry. This information—available for the first time in 1996—is being used to identify trends in the practice of sustainable forestry. The data cover a variety of topics ranging from harvesting practices to wildlife habitat diversity on >21 million ha members own or control. An independent panel of experts, who reviewed these data and the first annual sustainable forestry progress report, noted that although it was too early to tell how far the changes in commercial forestry practices will go, or how fast they will occur, that they do see positive signs in many of the companies they visit and in the first annual progress report.

A Commitment to the Future: AF&PA's Sustainable Forestry Initiative

A Commitment to the Future: AF&PA's Sustainable Forestry Initiative