laceyact - imported wood flooring must be declared legal

This post was republished to Greenerflooring at 3:50:37 PM 11/17/2008 New Legislation. Imported wood flooring must be declared legal. On May 22, 2008 Congress passe d the Lacey Act which prohibits the importing of illegally harvested wood and wood products. This legislation sets a ground breaking pr ecedent for the global trade in wood flooring and other wood related products and was widely supported by environmental, industry and trade organizations. This new law leads the way in supporting other countries’ efforts to govern their own natural resources to ensure that only legally logged timber for flooring and furniture is sold into the United States. The Act goes a long way to putting in place powerful incentives for timber producing countries such as China, Russia and Honduras to trade in wood products that come from legally logged sources or risk paying huge penalties . This is the world’s first such legislation and according to a Greenpeace spokesperson “is the most important piece of US forestry legislation passed in the past decade ”. According to industry experts there is no doubt that the Lacey Act will have a significant impact on the sales of wood flooring in the United States for many years. According to Alexander von Bismarck, Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) "Passage of this law marks a new phase in the global fight to transform the timber trade”. The EIA has been actively engaged in the investigation of illegal logging for the past ten years and through their efforts were able to bring the coalition together. The EIA estimated that in 2006 10% or $3.8 billion dollars of US wood imports were derived from illegally logged timber. According to the EI A video “Increasingly China is the first stop for high risk timber” It goes on to state that ”China relies on a constant stream of imported material much of this comes from the world’s illegal logging hotspots like the temperate forests of Russian where according the EIA is the location of some of the most lawless logging found anywhere on earth. According to published material enough illegal logs cross the Russia/China border each day to fill 3 ½ football fields. Some industry officials state that the problem may even be worst in South America where up to 50% of the timber is illegally logged. With this legislation the flow of illegally logged timber will slow and then with tighter enforcement hopefully be eliminated. As Mr. Bismarck stated “the world’s biggest consumer nation has sent a message that will be heard in forest communities around the world”.

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Page 1: LaceyAct - Imported Wood Flooring must be declared legal

8/14/2019 LaceyAct - Imported Wood Flooring must be declared legal

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This post was republished to Greenerflooring at 3:50:37 PM 11/17/2008

New Legislation. Imported wood flooringmust be declared legal.

On May 22, 2008 Congress passed the Lacey Act which prohibits theimporting of illegally harvested wood and wood products. Thislegislation sets a ground breaking precedent for the global trade inwood flooring and other wood related products and was widelysupported by environmental, industry and trade organizations.

This new law leads the way in supporting other countries’ efforts togovern their own natural resources to ensure that only legally loggedtimber for flooring and furniture is sold into the United States. The Actgoes a long way to putting in place powerful incentives for timber producing countries such as China, Russia and Honduras to trade inwood products that come from legally logged sources or risk payinghuge penalties . This is the world’s first such legislation and accordingto a Greenpeace spokesperson “is the most important piece of USforestry legislation passed in the past decade”. According to industryexperts there is no doubt that the Lacey Act will have a significantimpact on the sales of wood flooring in the United States for manyyears.

According to Alexander von Bismarck, Executive Director of theEnvironmental Investigation Agency (EIA) "Passage of this law marks anew phase in the global fight to transform the timber trade”. The EIAhas been actively engaged in the investigation of illegal logging for the

past ten years and through their efforts were able to bring the coalitiontogether. The EIA estimated that in 2006 10% or $3.8 billion dollars of US wood imports were derived from illegally logged timber. Accordingto the EIA video “Increasingly China is the first stop for high risk timber”It goes on to state that ”China relies on a constant stream of importedmaterial much of this comes from the world’s illegal logging hotspotslike the temperate forests of Russian where according the EIA is thelocation of some of the most lawless logging found anywhere on earth.According to published material enough illegal logs cross theRussia/China border each day to fill 3 ½ football fields.

Some industry officials state that the problem may even be worst inSouth America where up to 50% of the timber is illegally logged. Withthis legislation the flow of illegally logged timber will slow and then withtighter enforcement hopefully be eliminated. As Mr. Bismarck stated“the world’s biggest consumer nation has sent a message that will beheard in forest communities around the world”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tZBXBPZjiI&feature=channel