Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress
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Congress makes the following findings: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 31 percent of land on earth is covered in forests, but that area is rapidly decreasing. An estimated 1,600,000 square miles of forest has been converted to other land uses since 1990, with 42,500 square miles converted annually since 2010. Since the early 2000s, 2/3 of global forest cover loss has occurred in the tropics and subtropics. The expansion of commercial agriculture into tropical forests is the largest driver of forest conversion, led by cattle ranching and the cultivation of soy and palm oil.
An estimated 69 percent of such conversion between 2013 and 2019 was carried out in contravention of the laws of the country in which the conversion occurred. Such illegal deforestation results in the emission of more than 2.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, more than the entire annual fossil fuel emissions of India in 2018. Limiting global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrialized levels requires rapid and significant reductions in deforestation globally.
Cost-effective greenhouse gas emission mitigation from forests and land use can provide roughly 1/3 of the mitigation required by 2030 to stay below 2 degrees Celsius. Forests contain most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, providing habitats for 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, 68 percent of mammal species, and 60,000 different species of trees. Forests are also an important source of livelihoods, food, and fuel, with more than 1,600,000,000 people depending directly on forests for their livelihoods.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found in 2019 that the rate of global species extinction is accelerating and is now tens to hundreds of times higher than the average rate over the last 10,000,000 years, threatening the loss of 1,000,000 species, and land-use change is the direct driver with the largest relative impact on terrestrial ecosystems. Deforestation in many countries is closely associated with violations of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and with the exploitation of workers, including through the use forced labor and child labor, and in many cases is enabled by corruption, criminality, and violence against individuals defending their land rights and environment.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, individuals defending the rights of communities and indigenous peoples to their traditional lands and environment are particularly vulnerable to threats and violence and accounted for roughly half of the killings of human rights defenders documented in 2019. Congress has taken a number of steps to address the trade in illegal timber to protect legitimate forestry businesses and reduce illegal logging globally, such as, in section 8204 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 ( Public Law 110–246 ; 122 Stat. 2052), amending the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 ( 16 U.S.C. 3371 et seq. ) to prohibit the importation of illegal plant products, including such products made from illegally logged wood.
As with illegal timber, agricultural commodities produced on illegally deforested land enter international markets, including the United States, and compete with commodities produced legally. The United States is a significant market for products made wholly or in part of commodities such as palm oil, cattle, cocoa, and rubber at risk of being produced on illegally deforested land. For example, in 2020, the United States imported— processed cowhides and beef products valued at more than $500,000,000 from Brazil, where cattle ranching is the largest driver of deforestation in the Amazon forest and other biomes, and an estimated 95 percent of all deforestation was not in full compliance with applicable laws; and crude palm oil and palm kernel oil valued at more than $880,000,000 and oleochemicals commonly derived from palm oils valued at more than $390,000,000, from Indonesia, where the expansion of palm oil plantations is the largest driver of deforestation, and government audits of the sector in recent years have indicated widespread noncompliance with applicable laws.
The lack of traceability in the supply chains for such commodities and the absence of importer due diligence requirements increases the risk that United States trade is associated with illegal deforestation and human rights abuses, preventing United States consumers from knowing where or how the goods they purchase were produced and putting companies that ensure legal sourcing at a competitive disadvantage. It is the sense of Congress that the United States must do more to address illegal deforestation from agricultural commodities, including— avoiding trade that incentivizes foreign governments to allow illegal deforestation; assisting foreign governments in eliminating illegal deforestation and limiting all deforestation to the extent practicable; requiring that goods entering the United States market be subject to requirements, including the necessary supply chain traceability, to reduce the risk of association with illegal deforestation; preventing the United States financial system from being used to launder proceeds from illegal deforestation; and providing incentives to suppliers of the Federal Government to adopt and implement policies to eliminate goods produced on or from deforested land from their supply chains.
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U.S. Code
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- Pub. L. 110-246
- 122 Stat. 2052
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