U.S. Government Sued for Allowing Imports of Peruvian Mahogany

NEW YORK, New York, June 6, 2006 (ENS) – Doubly illegal, mahogany from the Peruvian Amazon is being imported into the United States for deluxe furniture under the noses of three federal agencies, according to a lawsuit filed today by two Peruvian indigenous groups and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. conservation organization. The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City.

Nearly all of Peru’s mahogany exports are logged illegally, the groups say. Importing it into the United States is illegal because it violates the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a major international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the lawsuit charges.

More than 80 percent of illegally logged Peruvian mahogany ends up in the United States.

“Millions of dollars worth of Peruvian mahogany enters U.S. ports every year in violation of U.S. and international law,” said Ari Hershowitz, NRDC’s Latin America BioGems project director. “While U.S. border control agencies look the other way, the rainforest and the communities that depend on them to survive are being plundered.”

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and three U.S. importers - Bozovich Timber Products of Evergreen, Alabama; T. Baird International Corporation of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; and TBM Hardwoods of Hanover, Pennsylvania.

A mahogany tree is felled in the Amazon. The mahogany timber trade generates over US$100 million a year in export sales, making it one of the world’s most valuable forest products. (Photo courtesy CITES)

In their lawsuit, NRDC and two Peruvian groups – Native Federation of Madre de Dios (FENAMAD) and Racimos de Ungurahui – are asking that the federal agencies stop all illegally traded Peruvian mahogany from entering the United States, and that the importers be ordered to forfeit illegally imported Peruvian mahogany already in the country.

“Illegal loggers are invading the territories of our indigenous brothers, who live in voluntary isolation, to plunder the natural resources in their reserve, putting them at risk from disease and violence,” said Victor Kamena Manuaje, vice president of FENAMAD, a coalition of 27 indigenous Peruvian communities. “Our claim is just and supported by the law – to get respect for our right to life and our territory.”

FENAMAD has been working for years to stop illegal mahogany logging and other destructive industrial activity in native reserves set aside for isolated peoples.

The other Peruvian plaintiff group, Racimos de Ungurahui, is a national indigenous rights group based in Lima, which has played a key role in lobbying the Peruvian government to set aside territories for indigenous peoples.

The lawsuit at the U.S. Court of International Trade follows an effort by NRDC and Defenders of Wildlife to ensure that furniture manufacturers, including Stickley, Furniture Brands International, Henkel-Harris and Hekman, do not use Peruvian mahogany in their products.

Mahogany table (Photo credit unknown)

By eliminating the lucrative market for contraband mahogany, NRDC and its partners hope to spur Peruvian logging industry reform and put an end to illegal logging.

NRDC and its two Peruvian partners are being represented by Robert Bourque of the national law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, along with NRDC counsel. “The stakes in this case relate not only to the survival of Peruvian mahogany,” Bourque said, “but also to the integrity of the Endangered Species Act and international law.”

NRDC first proposed international protections for mahogany in 1992, and launched a BioGem campaign in 2002 to protect the last remaining stands of mahogany in Peru.

Internationally agreed trade regulations for big-leaf mahogany took effect on November 15, 2003 under the CITES treaty. The neotropical populations of big-leaf mahogany, Swietenia macrophylla, are listed on CITES Appendix II, which requires that shipments of this timber be accompanied by a CITES export permit.

“Illegal logging and unsustainable export levels are threatening to render big-leaf mahogany commercially extinct in the near future, a trend that has been reflected in recent years by rising prices,” CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers said when the regulation entered into force.