Due Diligence Training
Course Resources

Lacey Act Introduction

• World Resources Institute – Forest Legality Alliance Risk Tool.  Information about forest products and legality is presented by country and by species. 
• CBP Lacey Act Questionnaire

Lacey Act Enforcement Cases

• Young Living Essential Oils Lacey Act / CITES Settlement Agreement -- Sept. 2017
• Announcement of Lumber Liquidators Settlement
• Lumber Liquidators Settlement
• Lumber Liquidators Compliance Plan
• Lessons Learned from LL's Case
• LD Kitchen and Bath Compliance Plan
• Gibson Comments on Department of Justice Settlement 
• Tree Thieves and Mill Owner Indicted for Theft of Big Leaf Maples from National Forest  
• Seizure of Shipment of Wood from Peru
• Dept. of Justice Department Announces Agreement for Destruction of Timber Believed to Have Been Harvested in Violation of Peruvian Law
• Office of Public Affairs-Department of Justice Press Release on the Quintana Case Florida Couple Pleads Guilty to Scheme to Evade $42 Million in Duties for Illegally Importing and Selling Plywood
• Office of Public Affairs-Department of Justice Press Release--Sentencing on the Quintana Case Florida Conspirators Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Prison Each for Evading Over $42 Million in Duties

APHIS Resources

• APHIS list of HTS codes subject to Lacey Declaration requirement. 
• APHIS Guidance on Special Use Designations and Species Groupings  
• APHIS Instructions for Requesting a New Species Grouping  
• APHIS answers to Frequently Asked Questions About the Lacey Act Phase VII Implementation    
• APHIS Valid Units of Measure for filing Lacey Act declarations.  
• APHIS Common Food Crops and Common Cultivars illustrative list
• APHIS Notice to clarify the Declaration requirement for formal entries from foreign trade zones and bonded warehouses
• APHIS Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR) is a search tool for identifying the import requirements for plant and agriculturally related products. This replaces the Miscellaneous and Processed Product Manual (MPPM) and where you can also find the import requirements for items such as wooden handicrafts from China.
• APHIS General information from Animal Plant Health Inspection Service regarding the Lacey Act and PPQ 505 Declaration.
• APHIS Resources on looking up a plant / tree genus and species.
• APHIS Implementation of Revised Lacey Act Provisions published on March 31, 2020. APHIS issued a stakeholders announcement to delay new HTS codes implementation from its planned October 1, 2020 date due to COVID-19.
• APHIS Lacey Act Message Set Requirements published March 2021.
• APHIS Lacey Act Samples published April 2, 2021.
• APHIS Lacey Act Implementation Plan: De Minimis Exception Rule
• APHIS Lacey Act De Minimis Exception Criteria and Examples
• APHIS Lacey Act Regulations – 7 CFR Part 357.

Corporate Compliance/Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

• Dept. of Justice Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs  -- The Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Criminal Division (the “Fraud Section”) recently published an Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs with the most common criteria that the it uses to assess the effectiveness of a corporation’s compliance program.
• Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing A memo from Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Department of Justice Resources Guide
• U.S. State Department Country Commercial Guides provide information on market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business customs for over 125 countries prepared by trade and industry experts at U.S. embassies worldwide.  Chapter 7 includes specific information on investment climate and corruption in these countries. 
• OECD Guide - Connecting the anti-corruption and human rights agendas: A guide for business and employers’ organisations. September 2020.
• IWPA letter accompanying vote to object to Decorative Hardwoods Association’s proposed ANSI Standard for Due Diligence in Procuring/Sourcing Legal Timber.

Sanctions/Specially Designed Nationals

• EC Guidance Document for the EU Timber Regulation: Consideration of Prevalence of Armed Conflict and Sanctions in Due Diligence Systems (May 2019) This document defines notions of ‘prevalence of armed conflict’ and ‘sanctions’ and specifies factors that should be taken into consideration in risk assessment procedures under the European (EUTR) system.
• Specially Designated Nationals List    

Forest Trade Certification Bodies

• FAQ - What is Forest Certification   
• FSC Marketplace  
• FSC License Code Look Up Tool
• FSC Certifying Bodies US Based | Internationally Based
• LEED: SFI Fact Sheet on how to count Certified Products for a LEED Point
• LEED Timber Traceability Pilot Project Credit Program
• PEFC
• PEFC at a Glance
• PEFC Certification Services
• PEFC Certificates Look Up Tool
• PEFC Statistics
• FSC ADVICE-40-004-19 - Species information in FSC Product Groups (amended) (12 Aug. 2020)
• FSC-DIR-40-004 – FSC Directive on Chain of Custody Certification

Environmental Nongovernmental Organization Resources

• Chatham House Illegal Logging Portal
• Client Earth's Forest Logbook is organized by country and provides links to relevant forest sector and other sector laws.
• Trace Bribery Risk Matrix
• Forest Legality Alliance  
• Forest Legality Alliance Risk Tool 
• Forest Legality Alliance Sourcing Legally Produced Wood:  A Guide for Business
• Forest Legality Alliance – Log Export Bans
• NEPCON Sourcing Hub contains assessments of the risks of illegal timber production and trade in 62 countries.
• Transparency International Country Corruption Index 
• WWF Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) Country Profiles 
• The WWF GFTN Trade Guide to Responsible Sourcing 
• WWF GFTN Practical Information  
• WWF's Wood Risk Tool  

Carb and EPA Formaldehyde Regulation Resources

• CARB and Lumber Liquidators March 2016 Settlement Agreement  
• IWPA Formaldehyde Fact Sheet For Importers  
• CARB Composite Wood Products ATCM
• CARB Labeling Guidance (updated Nov. 2016)
• EPA Formaldehyde Emission Standards for Composite Wood Products
• EPA Webinars on the new formaldehyde Rule
• Suspended or Revoked Third-Party Certifiers (TPCs) under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Title VI Program
• Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products Regulations

Cites

• General information on CITES  
• Checklist of CITES Species allows visitors to check if a product or species is covered by CITES  
• CITES 101 PDF  
• CITES I-II-III Timber Species Manual
• CITES and Timber - A guide to CITES- listed tree species
• Canadian Guide to the Identification of Tropical Woods Controlled under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
• European Commission Guidance Document on steps to be taken by EU Member States in the case of doubts as to the legality of timber from CITES-listed species imported into the EU.  (Oct. 18, 2018)
• Species and CITES Documents Search Resource
• IWPA-FWS Webinar on Implementation of CITES Timber Listings

CBP and AD/CVD Guidance

• CBP - What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Reasonable Care  (A Checklist for Compliance)
• CBP E-Allegations Website where you can report on suspected violations of U.S. Customs Law and related illicit trade activities including evasion violations.
• Antidumping and Countervailing Duties (AD/CVD) Frequently Asked Questions

CBP and AD/CVD Guidance

• ICE Forced Labor Program
• IWPA-Arnold & Porter Forced Labor Webinar
• Strategy to Prevent the Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor
• DHS Forced Labor and North Korean Labor FAQs – Section 321(b) of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Public Law 115-44)(22 U.S.C. § 9241a) prohibits the import of significant goods, wares, merchandise, and articles mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by North Korean nationals or North Korean citizens anywhere in the world because it creates a rebuttable presumption that the goods are produced via forced-labor

Wood Identification Resources

• Arbor Harbor is a “Trees to Trade” reference system with a focus on those species at risk of over harvesting. The system integrates data on taxonomy, conservation, geography, and trade regulations, all acquired from online databases or primary literature. The intended users include professionals working with forest resources and their conservation.
• U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory website offers wood identification services for private citizens and a Wood Handbook that summarizes information on wood as an engineering material.
• Advanced Query of GRIN-Global Species Data

Other Country Legality Resources (Australia, EU Laws)

• APEC / EGILAT Timber Legality Guidance Documents - These are written by the each government and are intended to provide clarity and transparency for businesses, government and civil groups on what constitutes legal and illegally logged timber within individual APEC economies.  As of March 2019 documents exist for: Australia, China, Chile, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taipei, & the United States
• European Timber Regulation – EUTR
• European Commission site on EUTR Timber Regulations, Guidance & updates
• FLEGT Licensed Wood - Indonesia
• United Kingdom guidance for business and industry on EUTR 
• Chinese Plywood Research Report
• Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation of 2012 information  
• Australian Country Specific Guidelines.  Note guidelines currently exist for Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, and Solomon Islands.   
• Australian Timber Importers Federation Inc. Legality Compliance Toolkit
• Australian Timbers Importers Federation
• FAQ on Indonesia’s timber legality assurance system - SVLK Program

Global Legislative, Policy & Legal Databases

• FAOLEX is one of the world's largest electronic collection of national laws, regulations and policies on food, agriculture and natural resources management. Users of FAOLEX have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each text, as well as to the full text of the legislation and policies contained in the database.
• ECOLEX is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN and UNEP.  The ECOLEX database includes information on treaties, international soft-law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature. Users have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each document, as well as to the full text of most of the information provided.
• The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is a free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility. 
• Library of Congress Global Legal Monitor for news regarding Forests and Timber Laws