News and Publications
World Forest ID has been featured in these publications:
Published Articles
- “A Case Study to Establish a Basis for Evaluating Geographic Origin Claims of Timber From the Solomon Islands Using Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis” February 8, 2022 via Frontiers
- “Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis for the Comparison of Timber From Two Forest Concessions in Gabon” January 27, 2022 via Frontiers
- “COP26: Kew’s library of trees will help track illegal loggers” November 12, 2021 via The Times
- “How a library of tree DNA could protect the world’s forests” November 27, 2019 via CNN
- “Can forensics help keep endangered rosewood off the black market?” November 3, 2019 via Science News
- “Is your wood from a legal source? This test can tell” June 9, 2019 via BBC
- “Kew’s tree library leads hi-tech war on illegal logging” February 24, 2019 via The Guardian
- “Can a DNA Database Save the Trees? These Scientists Hope So” June 22, 2018 via The New York Times
- “Scientists Build Lumber Library to Identify Poached Wood” May 7, 2019 via PBS
- “Tree sleuths are using DNA tests and machine vision to crack timber crimes” April 3, 2019 via Nature
Latest Reports
Timber identification of Autranella, Baillonella and Tieghemella in the taxonomically challenging Sapotaceae family
Background To enforce timber import laws and perform timber species identification, the identity of the botanical species must be well-defined. Since the Sapotaceae family is
Addressing the need for standardized wood reference collections to support authentication analysis technologies; a way forward for checking the origin and identity of traded timber
Societal Impact Statement Forest products are the most used inedible renewable resource, but supplies are finite. It is difficult to know which tree species are
Paper: ID of Sapotaceae Species
To enforce timber import laws and perform timber species identification, the identity of the botanical species must be well-defined. Since the Sapotaceae family is known as a taxonomically challenging family, we focus in this study on the four most valuable Sapotaceae timber species from tropical Africa: Autranella congolensis (De Wild.) A.Chev., Baillonella toxisperma Pierre, Tieghemella africana Pierre and Tieghemella heckelii (A.Chev.) Pierre ex Dubard. The wood anatomical characteristic fiber lumen fraction and Direct Analysis in Real Time—Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (DART-TOFMS) were used to differentiate the four species and to make inferences on species delineation and taxonomic identity.
Review: Plants, People, Planet
WorldForestID: Addressing the need for standardized wood reference collections to support authentication analysis technologies; a way forward for checking the origin and identity of traded timber.
Study: Verifying claims
Creating verifiable timber origin claims from the Solomon Islands: This study sought to establish scientific methodology to assess geographic origin claims of timber declared to have originated from the Solomon Islands to enable operators to carry out due diligence analysis and permit members of Law Enforcement to conduct forensic investigations.
Study: Protecting forests
Protecting forest in Gabon with Stable Isotope testing: This study aimed to assess the differences in stable isotope ratio profile of a variety of timber samples collected from two FSC concessions in Gabon, for the purposes of origin classification, and to enable operators and Law Enforcement agencies to carry out due diligence checks and forensic investigations.
