SFI Positioned to Meet Global Deforestation and Degradation Policies

Press Release

May 20, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. and OTTAWA, ON — The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), along with others worldwide, shares the commitment to ensuring the health and resilience of forests. The European Union has identified the United States and Canada as low-risk countries for deforestation, and SFI has taken further action to reduce risk through the SFI Standards. With the European Commission’s recent release of its EUDR simplification review, we have yet to see a reduced burden for certified products from low-risk countries.

We believe that SFI certification is well positioned to meet global deforestation and degradation policies, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). We have also introduced new tools specifically to demonstrate compliance with EUDR. We encourage competent authorities to recognize forest certification like SFI and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) to help provide assurances of no deforestation and forest degradation in low-risk countries.

The SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard, in place since January 2022, prevents deforestation, forest degradation, and does not support forest lands converted to other land uses including natural forests to plantations. To further clarify SFI’s requirements, formal definitions and guidance for “deforestation” as well as “forest degradation” were adopted in 2024 that are consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM).

Given the low-risk nature of the United States and Canada, SFI Standards can provide more nature related benefits and go beyond just assessing risk to deliver real impact on certified forests. The SFI Forest Management Standard includes progressive objectives on Climate Smart Forestry, Fire Resilience and Awareness, and Respecting and Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights. The Climate Smart Forestry objective requires SFI-certified organizations to identify and address climate change risks by developing adaptation strategies and identifying opportunities to enhance mitigation. The Fire Resilience and Awareness objective requires SFI-certified organizations to limit susceptibility of forests to undesirable impacts of wildfire and to raise community awareness of fire benefits, risks, and minimization measures. The Recognize and Respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights objective requires SFI-certified organizations to identify the Rights that may be affected by their forest management practices, provide training for all personnel to be able to recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Traditional Knowledge, and confer with Indigenous Peoples whose Rights may be affected on public land. This includes understanding and respecting Traditional Forest-related Knowledge, protecting spiritual, historical and cultural sites, and using non-timber forest products.

In addition to the lands certified to the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard, the SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard requirements address proactive, collaborative, landscape-level measures to ensure the responsible procurement of all fiber sourced by a mill. Uniquely, the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard requires SFI-certified organizations to implement measures to conserve biodiversity, protect soil and water quality, support logger and forester training programs, provide landowner outreach and assistance, and invest in scientific research.

Together, these measures help ensure that forest products are sourced responsibly and transparently. For stakeholders, this means greater confidence that materials come from deforestation-free, conversion-free supply chains. Independent, third party-accredited certification bodies verify compliance with the SFI Standards. All requirements in the SFI Standards are subject to third-party audits, which provides another level of assurance for regulators, competent authorities, and the public.

To assist SFI-certified organizations with EUDR compliance, in March 2024, SFI introduced the SFI Fiber Sourcing Module to Support EUDR Due Diligence Requirements developed for companies certified to the SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard. SFI also published the SFI Chain of Custody Module to Support EUDR Due Diligence Claims for organizations certified to the SFI 2022 Chain of Custody Standard. Because these modules were specifically designed to demonstrate compliance with EUDR, the modules integrate EUDR definitions as well as EUDR’s due diligence system requirements. SFI-certified organizations can add these modules to the scope of their existing SFI Fiber Sourcing or SFI Chain of Custody certifications. The SFI Fiber Sourcing Module to Support EUDR Due Diligence requires a geolocation solution to meet the requirements of the EUDR. SFI leaves it up to the organization to choose their preferred geolocation technology solution and provider.

SFI also believes it is important for the European Commission to recognize the statement by the Intertribal Timber Council (ITC) in response to the European Commission EUDR Simplification Review: “No Relief for Indigenous Forest Stewardship.” The ITC is calling on the European Commission to recognize Tribal forests in the United States as low-risk, legally protected systems; simplify geolocation requirements for Indigenous and low-risk forestry operations; establish temporary compliance flexibility during implementation; and engage in meaningful government-to-government consultation with Tribal Nations before final enforcement.

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