NREW YORK: Seventy-one shipping containers filled with Amazon rainforest timber have been retained at the Port of Houston since September in an international controversy over alleged illegal logging in Peru.
The valuable hardwood from one of the world’s largest forests weighs 3.8 million pounds and is enough to cover several football fields.
Under Peruvian law, every log taken from the Amazon rainforest must be registered and identified by GPS coordinates to establish the location where it was harvested before it can be properly permitted for export. Peruvian officials have alleged that at least some of the lumber that arrived in Houston was exported with faulty paperwork, according to Lima press reports and interviews with officials involved in the matter.
In Peru, protests erupted when officials attempted to take further action after the same ship that brought lumber to Houston returned to the port city of Iquitos to reload in late November. Last week, coffins with the names of Peruvian inspectors were dragged through the streets there.
In Houston, U.S. Customs officials said they have “excluded” the timber, meaning it cannot be legally allowed into the United States, Yolanda Choates, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, said in a statement. Customs issued that declaration, she said, after officials were unable to determine whether the wood had been brought into port legally under the Lacey Act, a federal law designed to fight illegal logging worldwide by holding U.S. importers accountable.
