Hopefully this is the right place for this. At a recent lobby meeting with our MoC's Energy and Environment Aide the Forest Act came up. The staffer had several questions that we didn't know the answers to.
1. What are the implementation/enforcement practices? How are goods from illegally deforested land identified. Or, conversely, how are they verified to NOT be from illegally deforested land.
2. There's a $30 million appropriation to help foreign governments (I think, this is what the staffer said). Is that a one time payment or a yearly authorization?
3. Our district is heavily forested and logging is a big industry so the staffer was particularly focused on illegally produced lumber. The staffer wanted to know if there's any correlation between decreased or flat domestic logging and increased imports of illegal lumber. I've found some data and forwarded it to the staffer that indicates most of the illegally imported lumber is from tropical trees that don't grow this far north so I don't think there's much of a correlation in that regard. However, maybe illegally cut trees are reducing demand for lumber from this far north? If anyone has any other info it might be helpful to share with the staffer.
Any help, particularly with the first two items, would be appreciated.
Hi Dan,
Thank you for your questions! The FOREST Act enforceability would mirror the Bipartisan Lacey Act Amendments of 2008. The Lacey Act prohibited the trafficking of timber produced from illegal logging and has been successful with law enforcement given the suitable materials and tools to enforce the legislation. With the FOREST Act, countries deemed at “high risk” of illegal deforestation will be put on an action plan that requires importers to improve how they document the source of their products.
The $30m allocated to the foreign assistance fund for countries committed to eliminating deforestation is supposed to be a one-time appropriation to the fund. Afterward, the resulting penalties from companies and governments not complying will be added to the fund.
As for your last question, I would need to look a little deeper into it and get back to you, but I would be happy to discuss it a little more once I get the opportunity.
Best,
Jamari
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