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Other attendees included Federal partners from: the State Department Bureaus of International Oceans and Environmental Affairs and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the National Security Council Directorate on Climate and Energy, as well as non-governmental organizations and stakeholders.
"The Timber Working Group is an interagency collaboration created to: Target available resources across the federal government to identify and investigate complex timber trafficking cases domestically and transnationally; Develop new tools and techniques to investigate and prosecute timber trafficking cases; and Build the ability of partner governments worldwide to combat this devastating illegal trade." -Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer
"Timber trafficking is extremely profitable. And right now, there's only a low risk of capture. And so, we've seen that timber trafficking increasingly involves organized criminal elements trafficking in other contraband, like narcotics, illegal arms, and wildlife parts. I am confident that the steps we are taking though the TIMBER Working Group and other lines of effort will help shake up this paradigm." -Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources Todd Kim
On April 19, 2023, as part of the Justice Department's Earth Week recognition, the department held an interagency roundtable on illegal timber trafficking. Officials announced the TIMBER Enforcement Working Group and explained how it will act as a force multiplier for U.S. enforcement efforts, among other recent developments in the field of timber trafficking enforcement. Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) and Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer provided opening remarks on the importance of combatting timber trafficking in order to protect forest resources and indigenous people who rely on the forests, combat climate change and transnational organized crime, and create a level playing field for the U.S. timber and wood products market.