CertificationCertification of Tree Farms through the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), under the oversight of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), is the oldest and largest voluntary, third party verification process in the United States. Since 1941, ATFS has been certifying the practice of sustainable forestry.As the certification movement grows, ATFS is taking steps to become internationally accepted as a credible forest certification option for family forest landowners. ATFS certification recognizes the practice of sustainable and excellent forestry on private forestlands. This recognition raises the visibility of the private landowners in their communities and inspires and motivates other non-managing forest landowners to practice sustainable forestry. In recent years, ATFS has modernized its standards and guidelines for Tree Farm certification to address contemporary benchmarks for sustainability. It established minimum education and experience requirements for certifying foresters and forest technicians and it developed a national standardized training curriculum for its inspectors. Certification in ATFS is a voluntary process. The certification process incorporates established and important standards and guidelines. Landowners who want to become certified Tree Farmers allow a qualified ATFS forest professional to inspect their property. If the property meets AFF's standards and guidelines for forest sustainability, the landowner receives a certificate and the recognizable diamond shaped Tree Farm sign. A landowner's property is re-inspected every five years to maintain Tree Farm certification status. There is no charge to the landowner for the inspection. ATFS Group Certification Newly developed by ATFS, Group Certification is a third-party auditing process for evaluating groups of landowners and certifying their well managed forests under a single certificate held by the group organization. Though a new procedure for ATFS, Group Certification itself is not new. It has been practiced in the Nordic Countries and other parts of Europe for over 25 years and is an internationally accepted practice. Group Certification allows many individual forest owners to band together under one umbrella organization and have the organization certified as complying with ATFS processes. In addition, forest owners agree to manage their forests to the American Forest Foundation's Standards of Sustainability. |
