[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H1103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  WE NEED TO END ILLEGAL DEFORESTATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, in 2022, the world lost more than 16 
million acres of forest, an area bigger than West Virginia. 
Deforestation accounted for about 10 percent of the world's annual 
greenhouse gas emissions and 40 percent of all tropical deforestation 
as a result of illegal clearing.
  Put another way, deforestation would rank as the third largest 
country in terms of overall carbon emissions, underscoring the need to 
address this problem as part of a global solution to the climate 
crisis.
  Nearly half of the tropical deforestation is estimated to be the 
result of just four commodities--beef, soy, palm oil, and wood products 
that drive this deforestation. The people who are engaged in illegal 
logging are some of the worst people on the face of the planet. They 
engage in bribery, theft, crimes against indigenous people whose rights 
are trampled on, or worse, actual violence directed against them.
  There is, of course, a solution: Deny people who grow crops on 
illegally forested land access to the American economy.
  There is precedent here, too. I had amendments to the Lacey Act 
focusing on disallowing illegally harvested timber to be imported to 
the United States. That earlier legislation was based on the success of 
the original Lacey Act that protected endangered species and wildlife. 
It is commonly accepted and simple to administer, although not always 
easy.
  It required companies to control their supply chain and to be able to 
document that control and respect for requirements of legally sourced 
product. It formed a framework not just for American law, but it 
modeled the European Union, Australia, and Japan who modeled their 
actions on my bill.
  Now, we have an opportunity to expand this approach to soy, cocoa, 
palm oil, beef, and rubber commodities. There is rough agreement that 
this approach has promise and the large companies are concerned about 
the legal, practical, and reputational consequences for being involved 
with products that are grown on these illegally harvested lands.
  We have introduced bipartisan legislation, the FOREST Act with 
Senator Schatz, to codify the conversation and to advance this policy 
to choke off this practice.
  The goal of the legislation is to encourage responsible companies to 
observe requirements to avoid products from illegally harvested 
timberland.
  It will require adjustment in terms of mindset and procedures to have 
control of the supply chain, but helping provide a framework is 
necessary to change these engrained habits.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support our legislation to use the 
tools of trade and supply chain control to end the environmentally 
destructive pattern of commodities from illegally harvested land. It is 
going to be hard, but it will be worth the effort.

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