Wood pellet manufacturer to assist private forest landowners in Florida with sustainable land management

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 1, 2018) – Today, the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and Enviva Holdings, LP (Enviva) announced a collaboration to pilot a new approach to certify family and small forest holdings through American Tree Farm System (ATFS) forest certification. This pilot is intended to reduce barriers to landowner participation in forest certification while ensuring rigorous sustainability standards are met, and long-term engagement of family woodland owners that leads to improved forest stewardship. 

AFF is a leading U.S. forest conservation organization, specializing in certifying family forests and other small forest holdings through its program the ATFS. The ATFS helps to keep family forests healthy and productive for ecosystem services like wildlife, clean water, and wood supply. Enviva is the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial wood pellets.

“Ensuring forest sustainability is a key priority for Enviva,” said Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, Enviva’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Supporting AFF’s important work is one of the ways we demonstrate our commitment to sustainability in the predominantly family-owned forest landscapes where we operate. The American Tree Farm System is instrumental in helping America’s family forest owners to sustainably and reliably supply the economy with a steady stream of forest products. We’re pleased to partner with AFF to grow ATFS because they are creating innovative ways to engage smaller and family landowners in sustainable forest management. We are excited to explore this new approach to certification with them in Florida.”

This pilot will begin in the Florida panhandle through the Florida Tree Farm Program, where AFF is already working with Enviva, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and other partners, to help private and family forest landowners across the Florida panhandle certify their forests are sustainably managed and restore longleaf pine forests to improve wildlife habitat. This pilot will expand the existing partnership. 

Specifically, the pilot will:

• Engage family landowners in stewardship, with the help of qualified foresters, at one of the most impactful moments in their ownership — the time of harvest;

• Utilize ATFS Standards of Sustainability and ATFS certification, endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC); as well as other AFF tools such as Landscape Management Plans, to support certification and sustainable forest management;

• Include rigorous monitoring to ensure sustainability and reforestation while focusing on any forest health risks identified;

• Secure a future commitment to stewardship from landowners and ensure they are provided access to AFF’s online educational resources and a community of other landowners; and,

• Aim to eliminate administrative barriers to certification while driving better stewardship on the ground over the long term.

“Family landowners are the cornerstone of the wood supply to forest product companies in the U.S., supplying roughly half the wood to mills. Yet most landowners are not aware of certification and tools like ATFS that can help them sustainably care for their land. Even of those that are aware, many of these landowners have chosen not to be certified because it seemed too bureaucratic, too intrusive, or too expensive," said Tom Martin, President and CEO of AFF. “AFF, through ATFS, has been the leading organization bridging family forest owners’ values, and the growing need for certified fiber. We are, once again, stepping up to meet this need by testing a new method to accelerate forest stewardship that also meets marketplace sustainability needs.”

“We are excited to work with AFF and Enviva to bring more forest landowners into our distinct group of certified Tree Farmers,” said John Alter, a Tree Farmer from Malone, Florida and an active member of the Florida Tree Farm Program. “We all care about clean water, wildlife habitat and a sustainable wood supply, so the more knowledge we can provide to Tree Farmers, the more forests will benefit us all. Tree Farmers are fantastic environmentalists.”

This pilot is one of many innovative strategies AFF is deploying to help increase the number of family forest owners engaged in forest stewardship. Other innovations in development include a digital risk assessment system, and landscape management plans.

About the American Forest Foundation 

The American Forest Foundation (AFF), a forest conservation organization, works on the ground with families, partners and elected officials to promote stewardship and protect our nation’s forest heritage. A commitment to the next generation unites our nationwide network of forest owners working to keep our forests healthy and producing the clean water, wildlife habitat and sustainable wood supplies that all Americans count on from forests.

About Enviva Holdings, LP

Enviva Holdings, LP is the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, a renewable and sustainable energy source used to generate electricity and heat. Through its subsidiaries, Enviva Holdings, LP owns and operates wood pellet processing plants and deep-water export terminals in the Southeastern United States. We export our pellets primarily to power plants in the United Kingdom and Europe that previously were fueled by coal, enabling them to reduce their lifetime carbon footprint by about 80 percent. We make our pellets using sustainable practices that protect Southern forests and employ about 680 people and support many other businesses in the rural South, where jobs and economic opportunity are sometimes scarce. Enviva Holdings, LP conducts its activities primarily through two entities: Enviva Partners, LP, a publicly-traded master limited partnership (NYSE: EVA), and Enviva Development Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned private company. To learn more about Enviva Partners, LP, please visit our website at www.envivabiomass.com and follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/enviva) and Twitter (@EnvivaBiomass).