PLYMOUTH, MA – Manomet is pleased to announce that our Climate Services program was recently awarded a grant from The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI).  This year’s SFI conservation grants feature the collaboration of 37 groups focusing on a broad range of issues including climate change, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat. The grant will support Manomet’s development of the Resiliency Assessment Framework, a scalable approach for assessing forest resilience to climate change, demonstrating the adaptation and mitigation value of forestlands certified to SFI, and incorporating climate opportunities and risks in planning and management.

Project partners will include four members of Manomet’s Climate Smart Land Network (CSLN), Lyme Timber, LandVest, Hancock Natural Resources Group, and Resource Management Service, LLC, all of which are SFI Program Participants.

The CSLN is an alliance of forest landowners and managers who are working together to respond to the challenges posed by climate change. CSLN bridges the gap between climate science and on-the-ground application and has enrolled over 6 million acres of managed forest. “The SFI grant provides a great opportunity for Manomet to work with our Climate Smart Land Network members to improve understanding of regional and local climate/forest interactions and to incorporate that information in planning and management,” said Eric Walberg, Senior Program Leader, of Manomet’s Climate Services Program.

The grants were awarded through SFI’s Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program, which is dedicated to improving conservation of forests and strengthening the communities that depend on them. These projects provide the science-based information needed by resource professionals to improve forest management. The projects also inform the larger discussion around the positive conservation impact of responsible forest management and its importance in supply chain sustainability.

“I’m thrilled to see the breadth of collaboration of so many groups,” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI Inc. “Critical issues like biodiversity and carbon storage are best tackled when we pool our collective knowledge and resources. These grants are an example of how the SFI community is growing and collaborating to quantify the conservation impact of certified forests.”

About Manomet

Manomet is a nonprofit organization that believes people can live and work today in ways that will enable our world to thrive and prosper tomorrow. Manomet’s mission: applying science and engaging people to sustain our world. Visit www.manomet.org for more information.

About the SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program

Since the program began in 2010, SFI has awarded 53 Conservation and 49 Community Partnership grants totaling more than $3.4 million to foster conservation and community-building projects. When leveraged with project-partner contributions, that total investment exceeds $13.2 million.

The grant program builds on the fact that SFI is the only forest certification standard in North America that requires participants to support and engage in research activities to improve forest health, productivity and sustainable management of forest resources, and the environmental benefits and performance of forest products.

SFI uses data generated by our conservation grants to help scale best practices and inform our revisions to the SFI Standards. Through the SFI Conservation Impact Project, we are developing metrics for climate change mitigation, water quality and biodiversity, to encourage forest health, conservation and sound management. Quantifying these environmental benefits will also enable the SFI community to understand and promote the conservation values associated with well-managed forests

Contact

Danielle Sarmir
Manomet
dsarmir@manomet.org