The United States’ prohibition on smuggling of illegally harvested wood has won silver in the 2011 Future Policy Awards as one of the world’s most inspiring and innovative forest policies. Rwanda’s National Forest Policy claimed First, while the US Lacey Act with its 2008 amendment and The Gambia’s Community Forest Policy shared the Silver Award.

The three policies were honored Wednesday by the World Future Council at UN Headquarters in New York.

"we are honored to be here recognizing a landmark act that has had such an extraordinary effect on the ongoing battle against illegal logging. With the Lacey Act, the US is closing the door on illegal wood, and sending a huge signal that our market power will support both good governance and forest protection,” said Alexander von Bismarck, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international campaigning organization.

The amended Lacey Act is the first law in the world to prohibit trade in wood products made from trees that were illegally harvested, according to EIA.