In an effort to balance economic and environmental concerns, the Forest Products Industry National Labor Management Committee promotes:
Sustainable Forests
Working as partners, the employees and employers of the forest products profession have a strong record of stewardship on our nation's forests. The LMC supports the American Forest & Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry InitiativeSM (SFI), an innovative program that is proving to be one of the most progressive standards for forest management practices. The program is continually evolving to more effectively promote environmental values while ensuring abundant wood and paper products to satisfy America's needs. The SFISM Program is a commitment to responsible practices that provide protection for special sites and continuous forest health improvement.
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Sustainable Communities
Forests are home to both wildlife and working families. The forest products profession not only provides living-wage jobs for families, but also provides a strong base for local communities, including schools. The survival of these communities depends on the maintenance of a healthy, productive balance between providing jobs for forest product workers and protecting the environment in which they live.
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Competitiveness
America's forest products industry faces increased challenges from foreign countries. The U.S. forest production operates under the strictest environmental mandates in the world and compliance costs are tremendous. In some industry segments, wood shortages are already forcing manufacturers out of business, and the lack of timber supply has precipitated the shutdown of hundreds of mills in the United States. While the industry continues to face additional restraints on public forestlands, regulators are now turning their attention toward restricting production on private forestlands. A reliable, sustainable supply of domestic timber is being replaced with abundant, less regulated foreign timber supplies. As a consequence, the LMC is committed to protecting the industry's competitiveness and the economic well-being of American workers.
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Certainty
The LMC seeks to promote solutions that will achieve the economic, environmental and social goals necessary to secure greater certainty for the forest products profession. Legislation that creates regulatory gridlock without demonstrating environmental necessity only serves to cause further uncertainty for forestry workers and landowners.
Certainty for the industry can be achieved if we pursue a new environmentalism based on hope instead of fear, solutions instead of conflict, education instead of litigation and sound science instead of emotion.
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Incentives vs. Restrictions
The LMC believes that a land management process based on credible science and rewarding voluntary efforts minimizes the need for additional costly prescriptive regulations, and ultimately maximizes the on-the-ground benefits derived from investments allocated to improve forest health and sustainability. We are committed to pursuing legislation that is reasonable and provides responsible incentives for landowners instead of punitive regulations without scientific justification.
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