The Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Inc. (SFI) is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management, conservation, and community engagement. Founded in 1994, SFI is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada (its principal office) and Washington, D.C., and works through standards, certification, and partnerships across North America.
SFI’s work spans four core program areas: standards and certification (the SFI Forest Management Standard and the SFI Chain-of-Custody Standard are among the most widely used sustainable forestry standards in the world), conservation and biodiversity protection on working forests, community engagement and Indigenous partnerships, and education through the SFI network. The SFI 2025–2030 Strategic Direction, “Theory of Change,” reaffirms SFI’s commitment to Climate Smart Forestry and to supporting the workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on forests.
SFI engages with IUCN through its work on forest landscape restoration, climate-smart forestry, and biodiversity conservation in certified working forests. SFI’s 2025 Progress Report — “Thirty Years of SFI. Celebrating Our Past. Looking to the Future.” — marks three decades of operation and the launch of Climate Smart Forestry implementation funding. SFI’s scale — the standard is used across more than 370 million acres of certified forest in North America — makes it a significant practical partner in the global forest conservation conversation.
