The US Justice Department has rallied harvest, processing, and consumer nations behind a drive to strip illegal timber from global supply chains, leading the first multilateral workshop to seat the entire timber trade at one table in Libreville from 18 to 22 May. That is according to Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, who said that illegal wood that breaches the Lacey Act undercuts American producers.
Pressing the commercial stake at the heart of the talks, Gustafson said the United States holds a strong interest in clearing illegal timber from global supply chains and keeping unlawful wood off the US market. “Illegally imported wood undercuts our domestic producers,” he said, adding that cooperation with foreign trading partners sharpens the collective ability to interdict illegal timber whilst supporting legitimate commerce.
Drawing more than 100 officials to the Gabonese capital, the workshop brought together industry, key harvesting nations, a leading processing and re-export hub and major consumer markets in the first session to span a timber supply chain from harvest through to customs. Cameroon and Vietnam joined the United States and Gabon, with the European Union, the United Kingdom, non-governmental organisations and international bodies also represented.
It comes as the department escalates a criminal enforcement push that has already seen it recruit dedicated intelligence analysts to pursue timber trafficking networks worth an estimated US$500 million. Running across legal and traceable timber systems, customs procedures and joint investigation techniques, the sessions also weighed industry concerns and the openings for legitimate trade.
Backed by more than half a dozen US agencies spanning the DOJ Trade Fraud Task Force, Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, the workshop also drew on the State Department, the Office of the US Trade Representative and US embassies in Libreville, Hanoi and Yaoundé. Participants toured sites tied to Gabon’s timber supply chain, including the Gabon Special Economic Zone.
Illegal logging ranks as the third most lucrative form of transnational organised crime behind counterfeiting and drug trafficking, according to anti-corruption group Global Financial Integrity, stripping lawful producers and forest owners of billions of dollars in revenue each year. The session also reinforced bilateral counter-trafficking work already under way between the United States, Gabon, Cameroon and Vietnam.
Gabon and Cameroon each trade actively in timber with both the United States and Vietnam, with Vietnam now negotiating memoranda of understanding with both countries to formalise trade-data exchange and joint investigations. More than 100 delegates attended across the five days, the Environment and Natural Resources Division said, marking the first time a complete timber supply chain — from harvest to customs — has been seated in a single room.
