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On May 22, 2008 Congress passed the Lacey Act which prohibits the importing of illegally harvested wood and wood products. This legislation sets a ground breaking precedent 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 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 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”.

The Lacey Act provisions have been in effect since May 22, 2008 however the full impact will be after December 15^th, 2008 when all importers are required to provide a basic declaration. This declaration will accompany every shipment of wood or wood products. The purpose of these declarations is to increase transparency about the wood and wood products trade and enable the U.S. government to better enforce the law. The declaration must contain: 1. The scientific name of any species used 2. The country of harvest, 3. The quantity and measure, and 4.The value.

The new legislation will be enforced by a combination of Federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture (APIS) and US department of the Interior supported by the Department of Homeland Security, which controls U.S. customs and monitors the borders through Customs and Border Protection The Act allows for penalties up to $500,000 for corporation, $250,000 for individual, or twice maximum gain/loss from transaction and possible prison for up to five years. In the case where a buyer unknowingly purchases illegal wood then the penalty would only be a Forfeiture of goods.

So what can flooring retailers protect themselves?  According to Elinor Colbourn, Senior Trial Attorney, US Department of Justice all buyers of wood flooring and wood products must exercise “due care” by asking suppliers questions in order to comply with all relevant laws” .She suggest that “companies should implement solid supply chain principles and where ever possible verify the legality of your wood”. This may involve asking for proof from suppliers that the product was legally sourced and have them provide verification. Another method to ensure compliance is for flooring retailers to purchase FSC certified wood flooring from an approved supplier. All FSC suppliers are Chain of Custody certified meaning that the product is legally logged.

For more information contact the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Peter is the founder and president of Magnum Floors (www.magnumfloors.com), Charleston, SC – one of the Nation’s leading sources for certified green wood flooring products.

Over his 25+ years of International flooring experience Peter has achieved a leading role in developing new markets for muli-national flooring companies. His industry uccesses include:

Under an exclusive agreement with UNILIN DÉCOR’s, Belgium, (US annual sales $80,000,000) Mr. Rundle introduced UNICLIC laminate products to North America. In 2006 Unilin was purchase by Mohawk Industries (Dalton, GA.) for $2.3 billion.

Entered into an exclusive agreement with Mannington Mills (annual sales $500,000,000) to introduce their wood products into Europe and later became the first European distributor.
Acted in the capacity of the senior consultant to Sultan Vicwood (K. T. Chong) to bring their African timber and Chinese manufactured flooring products to the US markets. Vicwood has significant timber holdings in Africa (estimated at 8 million hectares) 4,000 employees in China and commercial real estate in Hong Kong.

Develop the strategy and then arranged for the first shipments of Chinese hardwood flooring to CCA Global (US flooring sales $2 billion annually).

Developed the first North American laminate program with Weyerhaeuser (annual sales $21.9 billion in 2006). First year laminate sales were in excess of $12,000,000.

Owned and developed the Easy Lock Laminate flooring brand which was later introduced to LOWES HOME CENTER and sold to Kronotex

Introduced prefinished solid wood flooring into the United Kingdom and Ireland by establishing relationships with Canada’s largest solid wood flooring manufactures