Glossary

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) - The trade association for the U.S. pulp, paper and forest products industry.Certification is the means of auditing a process or operation to determine if it conforms to acceptable standards.  Examples are sustainable forest management, procurement and chain-of-custody certification.  For instance, International paper�s procurement and environmental management systems are certified.

American Tree Farm System (ATFS) - The Tree Farm System provides conservation education to non-industrial private forestland owners in the United States. Currently, there are approximately 9.9 million private landowners who own more than 57% of the forested land in the United States. The Tree Farm System goal is to reach out to these landowners and assist them in managing their forests sustainably. These individuals hold the key to what kind of forests, forest activities and forest resources future generations of Americans will enjoy. The American Tree Farm System has approximately 65,000 Tree Farms totalling almost 26 million acres of non-industrial private forestland certified in the program in 48 states. For 60 years now, since 1941, Tree Farm has recognized landowners for their commitment to sustainable forest management. Tree Farmers share a unique committment to protecting watersheds and wildlife habitat, to conserving soil and providing recreation for their neighbors and, at the same time, to producing the wood America needs to grow.

Best Management Practices or (BMPs) - In this report, forestry practices specified in state-level forest management guidelines or legislation. BMPs encompass the practices required by the mandatory forest practice acts in some states as well as the voluntary or quasi-regulatory BMP programs in other states.

Biodiversity - Most broadly, biodiversity encompasses the diversity of life on the planet. Biodiversity includes genetic diversity, the diversity of information encoded in genes within a species; species diversity, the diversity and relative abundance of species; and community/ecosystem diversity, the diversity of natural communities.
Biomass - Mass of organic matter, e.g., the "biomass removed in harvesting" refers to the amount of organic matter - mostly wood in trees, but also twigs and leaves - removed at harvest.

Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI) - For more than a decade BVQI has been the business partner of more than 42,000 companies worldwide to achieve recognition of their quality, environmental and health & safety management systems. Large and small companies alike, from all sectors of business have selected BVQi because of our broad scope of expertise, our value-added audits and our proactive partnering approach which helps to drive bottom line performance for all of our clients. BVQi specializes in offering second and third party auditing services to international standards, industry initiatives and customized customer requirements including ISO 9000, ISO 14001, QS-9000, TS16949, TE Supplement to QS-9000, AS9000, AS9100, SA8000, Code of Conduct, TL9000, Food Safety, HACCP, SFI, OHSAS18001, Guide 25,supply chain audits and Security Management.

CERFLOR - The Brazilian Association for Technical Standardization is responsible for establishing and operating CERFLOR, a national forest certification scheme in Brazil. CERFLOR is a voluntary and independent scheme conceived by SBS and managed by ABNT since 1990. It is practically ready to become operational this year after completion of field tests. In its first stage CERFLOR will be applicable to planted forests. CERFLOR was developed in accordance with internationally recognized and accepted forest management certification procedures. It is a comprehensive program that provides: i) P, C, and I for SFM assessment; ii) procedures for establishing and monitoring chain of custody, and iii) procedures for product labeling and logo use.

Certification is the means of auditing a process or operation to determine if it conforms to acceptable standards.  Examples are sustainable forest management, procurement and chain-of-custody certification.  For instance, International Paper's procurement and environmental management systems are certified.

Chain-of-custody Certification - This refers to the act of tracking fiber from its point of origin in the field through harvesting, processing and sale to the customer.  A chain-of-custody is required for label use or other public claims about a product.   A third-party audit verifies tracking of amount of certified fiber entering that part of the chain-of-custody, for example a paper mill.  This requires tracing the origin of wood from forest to manufacturing site to product. Any non-certified portion of wood fiber entering the chain must meet other requirements which vary by standard.  SFI, PEFC, and FSC all offer chain-of-custody certifications as part of their programs .

Clearcutting - Harvesting/regeneration method in which all merchantable trees (commercial clearcutting) or all trees (silvi-cultural clearcutting) in a stand are harvested in one operation. Clearcutting is also used in even-aged silviculture to regenerate an even-aged stand of desired shade-intolerant trees. In practice, most clearcuts are commercial clearcuts.

Forest Management Certification -The process by which a landowner certifies that their forestland has been audited (by an independent, third party) and has been found to conform to acceptable standards of sustainable forest management.  Private, industrial landowners, Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs), non-industrial private landowners, and groups of landowners can obtain certification for forestlands.  In addition, other certification systems such as point-of-harvest and logger certification programs aim to certify harvesting operations on forestlands but these systems are not yet recognized as part of forest certification standards.  Over 70 international and regional standards exist worldwide.

Endangered Forests - In essence, International Paper considers forest ecoregions, communities and stand-level sites that are either naturally rare or have lost much of their original extent due to human influence and are threatened with further habitat loss or degradation to be endangered.  International Paper�s position is that the term �endangered� implies some element of eco-region, habitat or species rarity that continues to be jeopardized. As such, we believe that the term �endangered� is best reserved for such instances.   In terms of �High Conservation Value Forest�, IP concurs with WWF, TNC, FSC and others that all ecoregions in the world contain forests and special sites within them that should be conserved and managed for their special ecological values.  We also concur with Global Forest Watch and World Resource Institute that intact frontier forests provide a unique opportunity to balance social, environmental and economic values sustainably, while so many options still exist to protect the High Conservation Value Forests within yet untouched landscapes. We also concur with organizations like TNC and WWF that in all bioregions of the world, a representative ecosystem network should be protected. 

Environmental Management System (EMS) - An environmental management system based on the ISO 14000 standards is a management tool enabling an organization of any size or type to control the impact of its activities, products or services on the environment. An environmental management system makes possible a structured approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, to achieving these and to demonstrating that they have been achieved.

Family Forest Owners -  Private landowners who cultivate forests on their land for commercial use are actually providing benefits to their neighbors and communities.  Their forests are essential to protecting our air and water quality and vital wildlife habitat lost to competing land uses.  These landowners have chosen to grow trees as a sustainable crop which requires less intensive management and (longer crop rotations) than traditional agriculture. The income derived from sustainable forestry enables landowners to keep family lands while providing jobs for local economies and personal enjoyment of wildlife and recreation on their property. 

International Organization for Standardization 14001 (ISO 14001) - ISO 14000 is actually a family of standards that are referred to under this generic title for convenience. It consists of standards and guidelines relating to management systems, and related supporting standards on terminology and specific tools, such as auditing (the process of checking that the management system conforms to the standard). ISO 14000 is primarily concerned with "environmental management". In plain language, this means what the organization does to minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities. The international voluntary standard for environmental management systems (EMS) known as ISO 14001 is currently the subject of heated debate. Proponents of ISO 14001 argue that the new standard will be an effective tool for improving industrial environmental performance and help to ease burdens on environmental regulators. At the same time, many in the environmental community worry that compliance with ISO 14000 does not guarantee environmental improvements.

Old-Growth Forest - The fourth and final stage of stand development, following mature forest, in which the forest canopy is generally composed of scattered remaining trees that assumed dominance following natural disturbance along with newly dominant, shade-tolerant trees. Other characteristics of old-growth forests may include accumulated coarse woody debris, snags and canopy gaps created by fallen trees. Because of these features, and the presence of an understory, old-growth forests generally exhibit complex stand vegetation, and provide habitat for many species. Development of old-growth forest generally takes from 100 to 200 years, with variation depending on forest type. The last remaining sizable area of old-growth forest in the contiguous United States lies in the Pacific Northwest; only a few small and isolated patches of old-growth remain in eastern forests. However, as a stage in stand development, old-growth forest could also develop in eastern forests (and was present in presettlement forests).

Procurement System Certification - For instance, International paper�s procurement system is certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative standard.

Streamside Management Zone (SMZ) - May also be called buffer strips or riparian management areas. Zone of forest along a forest stream where management practices that might affect water quality, fish or other aquatic resources are modified. Properly designed SMZs effectively filter and absorb sediments, maintain shade, protect aquatic and terrestrial riparian habitats, protect channels and streambanks and promote floodplain stability. State Best Management Practices generally recommend SMZs, although restrictions and key parameters (e.g., SMZ width) vary.

Third Party Certification - Validation the authenticity of something by someone other than the principals who are involved in a transaction.