FSC-US has recently initiated a working relationship with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a Washington, DC-based organization dedicated to exposing crimes against wildlife and the environment. One of EIA’s focuses is stemming the international trade of illegally harvested wood. Illegal logging is a major destructive force socially, economically, and environmentally—with effects including theft of vital community resources, destruction of priority conservation habitat and threatened species, and loss of national revenue from unrealized sales of public resources.

The collaboration comes at an opportune moment when the FSC has increased attention to illegal logging. The relationship will result in facilitating implementation of the legality component of the Controlled Wood standards as well as bolstering the application of FSC certification in timber imports. EIA has recently facilitated the introduction of new U.S. House legislation on illegal wood, the Legal Timber Protection Act, which may significantly shift incentives for U.S. importing companies to demonstrate forest and chain-of-custody certification. EIA has suggested that FSC certification is a useful mechanism for demonstrating legality within the pending U.S. legislation on illegal timber.

Harvesting trees within the structures of local, national, and international laws has always been a central component of the FSC standards. The FSC Principles and Criteria clearly mandate that managers comply with all laws and regulations, demonstrate long-term tenure of the land, and recognize customary use and usufruct rights on the lands. Until recently, however, the non-certified wood inputs used in products bearing percentage-based FSC labels were not tracked. The new Controlled Wood standards, which primary producers must comply with in 2007 and all COC certificate holders must comply with in 2008, includes avoidance of wood that is at high risk for being logged illegally as one of the five risk categories. With the implementation of the new Controlled Wood standards, FSC has made a significant step in strengthening its position against illegal logging and in demonstrated effort to stem the international problem.

The illegal logging industry is influenced by both internal factors (local legal structures and governance) and external factors (demand, markets, and international trade regulation). EIA works at both ends. In wood-producing countries such as Indonesia or Honduras, EIA conducts investigations to expose illegal activities, and works to build the capacity of local partner organizations to document and campaign against illegal logging and timber industry corruption. The information derived from these investigations is central to the effectiveness of the FSC’s new Controlled Wood standards and the development of the associated Risk Registry. EIA also focuses on the external factors, trying to change the dynamics of U.S. and European market demand that drives much of the illegal logging industry. If consumers ask for legally harvested wood, and if import laws restrict illegal wood, the reduced incentives to import wood harvested illegally will have immediate and positive consequence for community-owned forests, national parks, and revenue generation for governments of developing countries. It will benefit U.S. wood producers whose business is undercut by cheap illegal wood products. Further, it will benefit species that are in peril of local or global extinction and that merit special protection, including some high-volume timber species such as mahogany and ramin.

At present, the lack of any appropriate legal structures in the U.S. addressing import of illegally-harvested wood results in the U.S.’s virtual open door policy to wood that is known to be harvested outside the laws of foreign countries. EIA works on stemming this demand through both legislative and consumer avenues, including engagement with U.S. companies whom EIA’s investigations reveal to be selling illegal wood. Currently, the group is focused on passing legislation in Congress that would help level the playing field for companies trying to do things right, and give U.S. government officials some clout when addressing high-risk shipments of wood.

Currently, if a species is not listed in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) or the ESA (Endangered Species Act), there is no barrier to its import—even in cases where it is known that the vast majority of wood of some species is systematically harvested outside the laws of foreign countries. EIA’s analysis of trade data indicates that less than 0.5% of wood imported to the U.S. is addressed under CITES, yet the U.S. International Trade Commission has estimated that as much as 30% of imported hardwood is from suspicious or illegal sources.

EIA has been involved in an effort to amend the Lacey Act, a law passed in 1900 to prohibit trade in illegally taken or transported wildlife. Although plants are partially included in the language of the law, full application to timber would require an amendment to include foreign plants. This amendment was introduced on March 12th to the House of Representatives as the Legal Timber Protection Act, H.R. 1497, led by Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Jerry Weller (R-IL). It has gained several additional co-sponsors, been endorsed by major environmental organizations, and is being studied closely by timber industry federations in dialogue with the bill’s supporters.

The EIA feels that forest certification is a key tool to integrate into the implementation of CITES and an amended Lacey Act, as a way to facilitate the process of identifying legal timber and to reward certified companies for their efforts. For example, under Lacey, companies certified under an internationally recognized scheme may be considered to have undertaken “due care” to ensure that their wood sources are legal, protecting them from penalties under the Act. Within CITES, the EIA advocates using FSC certification as a mechanism to allow trade exceptions for timber species included in the Appendices. While there are currently no major timber species in Appendix I (the most restrictive category of trade), both mahogany (of Latin America) and ramin (from Indonesia and Malaysia) are in Appendix II, and several species including Spanish cedar are now under consideration for inclusion.

Further, EIA has found shortcomings in other certification systems. “FSC is definitely the gold standard,” states Andrea Johnson of the EIA in Washington, DC. “We are independent monitors with no policy for exclusive advocacy of any certification scheme. But FSC is without doubt the most robust system out there, and the most practical way for consumers to address the problem of illegal logging.”

The recent implementation of the Controlled Wood Standards, and its component of illegal logging, means that FSC is fulfilling its commitment to stakeholders of keeping illegally harvested wood out of all FSC-labeled products. For the standard to achieve its goals concerning illegal logging, violation of traditional and civil rights, conserving high conservation values, conversion, and use of genetically-modified organisms, FSC-US recognizes the benefits of establishing relationships with expert organizations such as the Environmental Investigation Agency. This win-win relationship between FSC and the EIA benefits FSC through recognition and promotion of its status as a leading certification program. Additionally, EIA’s research on illegal logging is key for the Controlled Wood Resource Center. In return, partnership with FSC will help EIA achieve their goals of stemming the wide-ranging and negative social, economic, and environmental effects of illegal logging.

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