WASHINGTON,D.C.—Republican leadership in the House of Representatives recently cancelled a vote on H.R.3210,a bill that would have weakened illegal logging amendments of the Lacey Act.
The bill had been making its way through Congress over the last year.
Amendments passed in 2008 to the Lacey Act-a national wildlife protection law-require all wood imports to be legally harvested,not taken from protected forests and have an import declaration of species.
While some parts of the furniture industry are required to declare wood's origin,phasing in the law to other areas has been slow.
In H.R.3210,an exemption of all non-solid wood products,such as pulp,paper,and composites was cited as a major weakness to the bill,according to a press release from Climate Advisers,a consulting firm specializing in climate-related issues.
In related Lacey Act news,Gibson Guitar,which focused national attention on the amendments after federal law enforcement agencies raided its facilities twice since 2009 to confiscate items violating the 2008 amendments,settled both cases with the U.S.Department of Justice.
Gibson argued it was being treated unfairly by the DOJ and that the raids would have been unnecessary if the U.S.government had communicated its intent.
The settlement defers prosecution for illegal purchasing and importing of ebony wood from Madagascar and rosewood and ebony from India.
Gibson agreed to pay$300,000 to defer prosecution and a$50,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation,according to a press release from the DOJ.
That payment will be used to promote conservation,identification and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical instrument industry.
Gibson also must strengthen its compliance controls and procedures and withdraw its claims to wood seized in the raids,including Madagascar ebony with an invoice value of$261,844.
Opponents of H.R.3210 said the bill gutted the 2008 amendments which supporters have criticized as too burdensome to comply with and difficult to enforce.
Environmental groups noted a key to stopping the House vote was recent media attention on the potential for job losses that could be caused by weakening the 2008 amendments.
A DOJ statement of facts in Gibson's case said the guitar maker's Madagascar exporter did not have authority to export ebony fingerboard blanks used on guitars.
The harvest of ebony in,and export of unfinished ebony from Madagascar has been banned since 2006.
The statement said Gibson was informed during a June 2008 trip to Madagascar about its ban-and told by trip organizers that instrument parts,such as fingerboard blanks,were illegal to export under the ban.
Participants on the trip also visited the facility of Gibson's ebony supplier in Madagascar and were informed that wood there had been seized and could not be moved,the DOJ press release said.
That information was reported to management at Gibson by the employee on return to the U.S.,but Gibson continued to place orders with the supplier,the press release said.
Gibson received four shipments of Madagascar ebony fingerboard blanks from its supplier between October 2008 and September 2009.
