JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announces it has maintained its certification by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Forest Management Standard for 658,348 acres of state land. The certification follows an annual audit of MDC forestry practices for those lands. MDC has maintained its certified status since 2017 with annual audits confirming its forest-management practices continue to meet the SFI® standard.

SFI is one of the world’s most recognized, independent third-party for forest-management certification standards and certification provides assurances of responsible practices across the forest products supply chain.

“Certification to SFI considers all aspects of our forest management process, from our actions taken in the woods to the paperwork we keep in our files,” said MDC State Forester Justine Gartner. “We are extremely proud to maintain this certification, which means we have outside validation that we are properly managing our forest resources to assure their health and sustainability.”

SFI’s Forest Management Standard is based upon principles, goals and performance measures that were developed nationally by professional foresters, conservationists and others with the intention of promoting sustainable forest management in North America. SFI and its many partners work together to balance environmental, economic, and social objectives such as conservation of wildlife habitat and biodiversity, harvesting forest products, protecting water quality, providing forest industry jobs, and developing recreational opportunities. The SFI Forest Management Standard is also the only standard that requires participants to support forestry research. Learn more at https://www.forests.org/.

“The Missouri Department of Conservation joins other progressive organizations that are demonstrating their leadership and transparency by certifying their lands to the SFI Forest Management Standard,” said SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow. “It is especially important to differentiate the responsible actors who are managing forests to maintain conservation values, sustain communities, and support responsible supply chains given that forest products are traded internationally. In other nations there are high risks of illegal logging and forest products are coming under increasing scrutiny.”