Wood Identification Science on the frontier of Law

EnforcementMagdalena Bojarska, Trinity College Dublin

RBG Kew Supervisor: Dr Peter Gasson

Deforestation and Development• Historically, forests cleared to meet a variety of demands;

– Living space, Agriculture and Pasture land, Timber, NTFP (rubber, latex), mining and oil

• Colonial powers achieved a high proportion of their capital through exploitation of forest resources of their colonies.

• People through poverty, turn to illegal logging for their livelihoods • fuelling deforestation which leads to habitat degradation and loss; biodiversity

loss, soil erosion; release of carbon into the atmosphere; change in surface albedo, change in weather and wind patterns…

Deforestation and Development• Agents of deforestation are predominantly human, while

main drivers of illegal logging are poverty and lack of forest law enforcement by governments of developing forest-rich countries. – Corruption and lack of legal permits leads to missed profits;

• Unpaid taxation, trade tariffs, insurance

• Illegal logging is often carried out by criminals, linked with drug trade and cultivation and human trafficking

…Which undermines stability and law enforcement even further

Illegal logging is an economic, social and environmental problem, and requires a

combined approach and international cooperation

Legal initiatives by the biggest timber markets aim to eliminate the illegal timber trade

EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade

• EU FLEGT (2003) Action Plan: promotes legal timber trade between partner countries and the EU, through– supporting the timber producing countries and private sector

initiatives in capacity building and policymaking– addressing illegality and conflict timber– safeguarding financial investment

One of the main legal outcomes of the EU Action Plan is EU Timber Regulations (2013)

EU Timber Regulations• EUTR resembles similar legal initiatives;

– US Lacey Act of 2008– Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act of 2012

• These require risk assessments and ‘’due diligence’’ in order to prevent illegally sourced timber and timber products from entering the open EU market.– Due diligence; chains of custody records

• origin and species of the timber• proof of compliance with local regulations

• Carried out by ‘Competent Authorities’ and assessment by ‘Monitoring Organisations’ as recognised by the EC

• At Kew, we receive wood samples through: 1. Individual companies part of ‘due diligence’ 2. UK’s national Competent Authority part of implementation and enforcement

• Competent Authority for UK commissioned us to authenticate 380 furniture samples

Implementation of EUTR

• Wood section preparation using a microtome• Identification by (trained!) eye

– using the IAWA list of anatomical characters – InsideWood database– Access to the Slide Collection, to manually compare results with the reference material

• Access to Economic Botany Collection

Implementation of EUTR

insidewood.lib.ncsu.edu

By Peter Gasson

Quercus rubra

White oak Red oak

Enforcement & Science• A fifth of samples analysed by us showed a level of non-compliance

– did not match descriptions – had missing documentation

• Incomplete documentation, as well as sampling constraints pose many issues– MDF, particleboard, as well as very thin veneers which are thindo not yield sections informative enough for undisputed identification

• Genera not commonly traded, are not well represented in our reference material, such Nyatoh (Sapotaceae, 5 genera traded together), Lotofa (Malvaceae/Sterculiaceae, Sterculia rhinopetala ) or Campnosperma sp.(Anacardiaceae)

Sterculia rhinopetala Campnosperma sp. Madhuca, Ganua, Palaquium, Pouteria, Payena

• New developments using technologies such as image recognition, DNA fingerprinting, real-time log tracking– Reference DNA databases of CITES species created under the ITTO-CITES partnership

• However until robust protocols are widely available for molecular identification, implementation of EUTR depends on wood anatomy for identification

• Therefore in order to keep up with the market – studies of wood anatomy of less commonly traded species are needed– broaden the microscope slide collection as well as digitise it to aid training– Grow Next Generation Wood Anatomists!

Enforcement & Science

Thank you!