position statements
The Society of American Foresters has a responsibility to anticipate, identify and define opportunities, problems and issues related to forest resources. The Society's Forest Policies, approved by referendum, guide positions the Society takes in contributing its professional knowledge to public deliberations on forestry issues.
saf promotes policies that
- Encourage conservation of, or investment in, forest resources to satisfy future expectations,
- Resolve conflicts about forest uses and forestland allocations to make future investments more secure,
- Promote the equitable distribution of forest benefits to strengthen public support for forest resource conservation, and
- Increase cooperation between and among foresters and forestry institutions throughout the world who are developing mutually beneficial approaches to these challenges.
The Society's position-taking procedure assures analytical, objective and democratic analysis of forestry issues. Interdisciplinary task forces study and prepare reports on resource issues. Task force members represent the various disciplinary and philosophical segments of the forestry profession and are selected for their knowledge about the issues. Position statements draw from task force reports and are reviewed by forest policy and science experts and the Society's governing council before being adopted. Our current position statements are are available for inspection; please see the complete list on the sidebar.
