Smart Wood Innovating New Certification Strategies

The Smart Wood Program of the New York City-based Rainforest Alliance recently announced a series of new partnerships and initiatives that should help make certification available to a wider range of forestry programs. In the Northeast, Smart Wood has teamed up with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). As a member of the emerging Smart Wood Network, NWF’s Northeast Natural Resource Center will undertake certification of forestry operations in the six New England states and New York. These certifications will be to Smart Wood standards, and wood from these forests will be authorized to carry the Smart Wood stamp. This new partnership should help to make certification affordable for the smaller and less well-capitalized operations that are typical of much of the Northeast by drawing on resources from NWF’s fundraising efforts.

In California Smart Wood, together with the Institute for Sustainable Forestry, has initiated a radically different approach to the certification of smaller woodlots by endorsing the management practices of a particular forester. Recognizing that forests managed by Craig Blencowe of Fort Bragg, California consistently exceed Smart Wood standards, the program has moved to allow certification of any woodlots he manages without the burden of independent inspection of each operation. Under this arrangement, as many as fifty independent landowners will be producing Smart Wood-certified lumber in an area totalling about 12,000 acres (5,000 ha). About three million board feet (7,000 m3) of redwood, Douglas fir, white fir, and Ponderosa pine from these operations is sold annually, most to local sawmills.

Ultimately, forest certification will only be successful if it is widely known and demanded by consumers of wood products. Steve Brunner is president of Tropical American Tree Farms, an early Smart Wood-certified operation. He feels that Smart Wood hasn’t done enough to promote recognition of certification in the industry at large, noting that at forest product trade shows he encounters many professionals who have never heard of independent certification, and that few referrals come his way from the Smart Wood listings.