Impacts of the Lacey Act Amendment and the Voluntary Partnership Agreements on illegal logging: implications for global forest governance

Abstract

Abstract Illegal logging has negatively impacted environmental, economic, and social conditions in forests around the world. Various policies have been stymied owing to the complex web of timber harvesting, processing, manufacturing, and consumption cutting across developed and developing countries. We examine the potential impacts of new initiatives that directly address illegal timber trade by the two largest importers, primarily the ‘Lacy Act Amendment’ (LAA) by the US and the ‘Voluntary Partnership Agreements’ (VPAs) by the EU. We assess their effects on economy-wide welfare, prices of wood and paper products, and timber harvests in individual countries/regions and the world. We estimate that the LAA and VPAs, by themselves, would have moderate impacts on reducing illegal logging (0.1–8.35% reductions in timber harvests in the countries with high illegal logging rates). Broader cooperation among producer and consumer countries and alignment of existing forest governance mechanisms with illegal logging control measures are critical to create synergies.