Article Number : 5150 |
|
Article Detail |
|
 | |
| Date | 12/17/2009 9:34:03 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=5150 |
| Abstract | Anyone who thinks the U.S. government is not serious about enforcing the Lacey Act should think again. For those who may have been orbiting the moon for the last two years, a person or company that imports into the United States illegally harvested plants or... |
| Article | Anyone who thinks the U.S. government is not serious about enforcing the Lacey Act should think again. For those who may have been orbiting the moon for the last two years, a person or company that imports into the United States illegally harvested plants or products made from illegally harvested plants, including timber, as well as any business that exports, transports, sells, receives, acquires or purchases such products in the U.S., may be prosecuted. That may sound like legal mumbo jumbo to you, but it is very real. Yes, a retailer can get into trouble for selling illegally harvested wood. And yes, the feds can barge into a consumer’s home and rip up that nice merbau floor you so expertly installed if it is proven the wood was illegally sourced. “Never happen,” you may say? Well, it has. Kind of. While the first company to get nailed was not a flooring manufacturer, distributor or retailer, it could be next. Here’s the scoop. Last month, federal agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with local police seized wood, guitars, computers and boxes of files from Gibson Guitar’s Nashville, Tenn., manufacturing facility, marking the first major enforcement action of the Lacey Act against an importer of wood products since it was amended in 2008. Sources say the manufacturer’s violation involved importing endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar. Rosewood is widely used in the construction of guitars and sells for $5,000 per cubic meter, more than double the price of mahogany. The island nation off Africa’s east coast is a key producer of rosewood, the export of which has links to international criminal activity. In a statement, Gibson said it is a chain of custody-certified buyer that purchases wood from legal suppliers that are to follow all standards, such as community-managed forests in Honduras and Guatemala. Gibson’s factory and the guitars are subject to annual FSC inspection and were last re-certified in September 2008. Its chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, takes the issue of certification very seriously. He even sat on the board of the Rainforest Alliance until taking a leave in light of the investigation. Here’s why everyone needs to take notice: Madagascar has struggled financially since a January coup, and in September its new president legalized the export of rosewood and ebony. This, despite environmental groups and political leaders worldwide decrying the move given that hardwood forests are key to Madagascar’s unique ecology and serve as a habitat for a dwindling lemur population. An article in the Nashville Post said Gibson was involved in a scheme that shipped the wood from Madagascar to Germany and then to the U.S. While the facts of this case are still developing, the little that is known underscores the importance of maintaining and regularly verifying the soundness of supply-chain and sourcing arrangements involving products regulated by the Lacey Act, even when FSC-certified inputs are involved. |