Lacey Act
Lacey Act · United States
The Lacey Act prohibits trade in plants and plant products taken in violation of law, and requires an import declaration for covered products identifying species, country of harvest, and quantity. The species identification requirement is the practical difficulty: declarations must be specific, and supply chains frequently are not.
This is a mapping of requirements to evidence categories. It is not a compliance determination, not a legal opinion, and not advice. Confirm every detail against the primary text linked below before relying on it.
Requirements mapped to evidence
| What the rule asks for | Evidence that may bear on it, and its limits |
|---|---|
| Declare species and country of harvest for covered products. | Supplier documentation. No public registry we have assessed independently confirms the species in a shipment. |
| Exercise due care that the product was not taken in violation of law. | Public environmental and forestry enforcement records indicate recorded findings against an entity. They do not establish lawful harvest. |
What this does not establish
- Species declared at genus level cannot be assessed against a species-specific requirement.
- Harvest authorisation documents are frequently not verifiable through any public interface.
Producing countries in scope here
Sources
Every statement above is drawn from these primary sources. Check them yourself — we link to the authority, not to a summary of it.
- Lacey Act declaration requirements — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Last reviewed 2026-08-09. If anything on this page is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it — that route is open to anyone, including the subject of a record.