The Ten Elements of Sustainability:
ISF/SmartWood Certification Criteria

1)  Forest practices will protect, maintain and/or restore the aesthetics, vitality, structure, and functioning of the natural processes, including fire, of the forest ecosystem and its components at all landscape and time scales.

2)  Forest practices will protect, maintain and/or restore surface and groundwater quality and quantity, including aquatic and riparian habitat.

3)  Forest practices will protect, maintain and/or restore natural processes of soil fertility, productivity and stability.

4)  Forest practices will protect, maintain and/or restore a natural balance and diversity of native species of the area, including flora, fauna, fungi and microbes, for purposes of the long-term health of ecosystems.

5)  Forest practices will encourage a natural regeneration of native species to protect valuable native gene pools.

6)  Forest practices will not include the use of artificial chemical fertilizers or synthetic chemical pesticides.

7)  Forest practitioners will address the need for local employment and community well-being and will respect workers’ rights, including occupational safety, fair compensation, and the right of workers to collectively bargain, and will promote worker owned and operated organizations.

8)  Sites of archaeological, cultural and historical significance will be protected and will receive special consideration.

9)  Forest practices executed under a certified Forest Management Plan will be of the appropriate size, scale, time frame, and technology for the parcel, and adopt the appropriate monitoring program, not only in order to avoid negative cumulative impacts, but also to promote beneficial cumulative effects on the forest.

10)  Ancient forests will be subject to a moratorium on commercial logging during which time the Institute will participate in research on the ramifications of management in these areas.

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