Wow! It's so cool to hear that a major think tank like the London's Chatham House sees illegal logging trade has dropped by 22% in the past 10 years. It's also refreshing to learn that according to the Chatham House's research, the combination of enforcement efforts by countries traditionally plagued by timber piracy and the consumer countries that for years have unwittingly provided a market for illegal wood products have helped ave an estimated 17 million hectares of forest over the past decade.

The most eye-popping numbers in the report are that illegal logging has declined between 50 and 75 percent during the last decade in Cameroon, the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesia.

While this news is encouraging, as the report itself asserts, the global problem is far from under control. So much work needs to be done.

For starters, while the researchers laud the United States for taking the dramatic step of adopting the Lacey Act amendment to sanction importers of illegal wood and wood products, the U.S. remains the major destination of products fabricated from illegal sources. The challenge continues to be one of recognizing products made from illegally cut timber, including the authenticity of the accomanpying credentials. The bottomline: What does a kitchen table made of illegally cut wood look like compared to one cut from a legal source?

Another issue, according to Chatham House is that while countries like Indonesia, Cameroon and Brazil have taken measures to eliminate illegal logging, the next steps to identify and restrict illegal more difficult to diffentiate practices will be more challenging.

The study also finds that while the Lacey Act amendment and recent actions by the European Union to prohibit the import of illegally harvested wood products are big steps in the right direction, that Japan and China, two other very big importers of wood timber, need to join the cause and enact measure like the Lacey Act Amendment.
 
Thinking again about U.S. companies, I would like to think that every company is on top of its game and will not be turned into a poster child of post-Lacey Act concern.

In other words, don't dare to be the subject of my next blog.


Guest Blogs Welcome
Got a viewpoint you would like to share with our online woodworking community? Woodworking Network welcomes guest blogs from wood products professionals. Submit your opinions to Rich Christianson, Editor at Large, at [email protected].