Anti-regulation forces are working to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from enforcing violations of the Lacey Act, the first-ever law prohibiting the trade of products made with illegally logged wood, and pushing members of Congress to overturn the law.
If these efforts are successful, the U.S. wood industry could lose millions, be forced to lay off workers, and irreplaceable tropical ecosystems could be threatened. A new report released recently by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), “Logging and the Law: How the U.S. Lacey Act Helps Reduce Illegal Logging in the Tropics,” outlines how illegal logging poses a significant threat to the U.S economy and endangers tropical ecosystems around the world.
“Lawmakers must preserve the Lacey Act because it closes the entire U.S. timber market to illegally sourced wood, an approach to stopping illegal logging that’s supported by economic research,” said Pipa Elias, UCS consultant and author of the report. “The law ensures that the U.S. wood industry isn’t undercut by cheap, illegally harvested wood.”
Illegal loggers reduce the competitive advantage of legal producers by selling unlawfully cut or stolen wood at artificially low prices. This practice results in trade distortions that decrease prices of legal wood worldwide by about 16%.
From The Union of Concerned Scientists: https://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/illegal-logging-threatens-economy-and-environment-1383.html