TPL’s Will Rogers Joins SFI Inc. Board of Directors

ARLINGTON, VA, 2/2/2009: William B. Rogers, President and CEO of the non-profit Trust for Public Land (TPL), has joined the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) Board of Directors.

“The Trust for Public Land and the SFI program both appreciate the importance of considering all forest values – environmental, social and economic,” SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow said today. “TPL helps keep working lands working while preserving environmental benefits, often through conservation easements, and the SFI standard encourages its program participants to take part in these kinds of voluntary activities. TPL has worked in partnership with many SFI program participants.”

“I’m very excited about having Will join our board,” said Rick Holley, Chair of the SFI Board of Directors. “He is a nationally recognized advocate for land conservation, clearly understands sustainable resource management and the need for it, and is a strong supporter of forest certification. His organization has done a terrific job on the conservation front and he will add value to the board and the SFI program.”

“Forest certification is an important tool to help keep our forests strong and healthy,” said Rogers. “SFI certification and the sustainable forestry practices it encourages help ensure that our relationship with the land contributes to our individual physical health, our environmental health, our community health and our economic health.”

SFI Inc. is a registered non-profit organization responsible for an internationally recognized forest certification program that is among the largest in the world. Its independent board represents environmental, social and economic sectors equally, and is totally responsible for the SFI program. Current board members include representatives of environmental, conservation, professional and academic groups, independent loggers, small family forest landowners, public officials, labor and the forest products sector.

About SFI Inc.
SFI Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org), that is internationally recognized and among the largest in the world. It is one of the fastest-growing forest certification programs with 154 million acres (62 million hectares) of SFI-certified forests across North America. The SFI Standard also includes unique fiber sourcing requirements that promote responsible forest management on all suppliers’ lands and a chain-of-custody certification, which can communicate to buyers how much certified fiber is in a specific product. The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.