Two Peruvian indigenous rights groups, the Native Federation of Madre de Dios River and Tributaries (FENAMAD), and Racimos de Ungurahui, are working with U.S.-based conservation group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to bring a lawsuit against the United States Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture and the Interior for allowing illegal mahogany from Peru into the United States. Ari Hershowitz, a spokesperson for NRDC, said in an email that FENAMAD and Racimos contacted the NRDC about five years ago to ask for help in the fight against illegal logging, and that this suit is the culmination of that effort. The groups are suing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Under the Endangered Species Act, mahogany is protected from over-cutting; CITES states that imported mahogany must come from a legally authorized source, in an area approved for logging by the country’s Scientific Authority. The Scientific Authority in Peru has not authorized most of the mahogany logging due to dangerous and unsustainable practices. According to NRDC’s statistics, nearly all mahogany is logged illegally and almost 80 percent of it is sold to the United States. Unauthorized loggers enter forests illegally and devastate wildlife, threatening isolated indigenous communities in Peru and in Brazil such as the Mascho-Piro, Yora, Matsigenka, and Amahuaca.
