Forensic timber identification: It's time to integrate disciplines to combat illegal logging

Dormontt, Eleanor E.; Boner, Markus; Braun, Birgit; Breulmann, Gerhard; Деген, Бернд; Espinoza, Edgard O.; Gardner, Shelley; Guillery, Phil; Hermanson, John C.; Koch, Gerald; Lee, Soon Leong; Kanashiro, Milton; Rimbawanto, A.; Thomas, Darren; Wiedenhoeft, Alex C.; Yin, Yafang; Zahnen, Johannes; Lowe, Andrew J.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.06.038

Cited by 179 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Nevertheless, as forest certification is based commonly on paper, and logging in the tropics is being practiced with corruption and falsification of logging permits (Nellemann, 2012), forest certification alone is still vulnerable to document falsification. A combination of forest certification and newly developed timber tracking technologies (Dormontt et al, 2015) to monitor and control wood products is critical for reducing illegal logging and for the prevention of premature re-entry logging. According to a recently established working group of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a range of technologies are available to verify timber source claims (e.g., anatomy, stable isotopes), but DNA timber tracking technology seems like the best source of information about the tree species, country, forest concession and even individual tree from which wood was derived (Dormontt et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Stabilize Timber Production

Sasaki

Asner

Pan

et al. 2016

Front. Environ. Sci.

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HIGHLIGHTS• About 500 million hectares of tropical forests have been degraded due primarily to overexploitation • Preventing premature re-entry into harvested areas can retain up to 34% of carbon stocks in the forests • Adoption of reduced-impact logging and wood processing technologies (RIL+) along with financial incentives can reduce forest fires, forest degradation, maintain timber production, and retain carbon stocks • About US$1.8 Mg CO −1 2 or US$2 billion year −1 is needed for the adoption of RIL+ for the whole tropical production forests.The REDD+ scheme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has provided opportunities to manage tropical forests for timber production and carbon emission reductions. To determine the appropriate logging techniques, we analyzed potential timber production and carbon emission reductions under two logging techniques over a 40-year period of selective logging. We found that use of reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques alone in tropical production forests (PdF) could reduce carbon emissions equivalent to 29-50% of net emissions from tropical deforestation and land use change, while also supplying 45% of global round-wood demand. Adopting RIL plus other improvements (RIL+) in forest management (adopting forest certification and DNA timber tracking to prevent illegal logging) and wood conversion practices (adopting technology to increase recovery of sawn wood), would result in increasing long-term carbon storage in sawn-wood and reduce logging-induced fire-prone wood wastes by 14-184%. For this to happen, about US$2 billion or $1.86 per Mg CO 2 in financial Sasaki et al. Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests incentives are needed annually for parties to adopt RIL+ and to prevent premature re-entry logging. Our findings suggest that future climate policies should explicitly include RIL+ to satisfy the "sustainable management of forests" proviso in the REDD+ scheme, and also count carbon in wood products as eligible credits for trading.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Stabilize Timber Production

Sasaki

Asner

Pan

et al. 2016

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…Tools from these three different categories are not mutually exclusive, and they can be used in combination. Each category of tools has its own specific technical and practical characteristics that influence its ability to inform about the identity or the provenance of the products tested (for a complete review of the different techniques, see Dormontt et al 2015).…”

Section: The Technoscientific Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic tools for traceability: Opportunities, challenges and perspectives for the Canadian forestry sector

Godbout

BomalClaude

FarrKen

et al. 2018

The Forestry Chronicle

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Consumers, retailers, investors, and governments want quality products that are both safe and obtained through legal and sustainable practices. The solution put into place to meet those challenges requires the implementation of a traceability system. In the context of forestry, traceability is the ability to inform about the identity or provenance of a wood product. The principle of traceability helps establish trust among the various stakeholders throughout the value chain. To this day, most traceability systems are based on paper permits, which are easier to falsify than systems that are based on genetic markers. In this manuscript, we define the elements of a traceability system based on genomic tools that could be useful for the Canadian forest sector. We also present several examples in which genomic tools are or could be used as traceability systems. Genomic tools and data happen to be available in quantity for several forest species and they could constitute the basis for the development of such traceability systems. Our aim is to demonstrate that there are actually great opportunities to develop such systems that could be applied to the Canadian forest sector.Keywords: traceability, genomic, markets, certification, sustainability, urban forestry, quality control, value chain, taxonomy, origin, database RÉSUMÉ:Les consommateurs, les détaillants, les investisseurs et les gouvernements veulent des produits de qualité, sécuritaires et qui résultent de pratiques légales et durables. Les principes de la traçabilité permettent de répondre à ces différents enjeux. Dans le contexte forestier, la traçabilité est la capacité d'informer sur l'identité ou la provenance d'un produit du bois. Ce principe aide à établir la confiance entre les différents acteurs de la chaîne de valeur. À ce jour, la plupart des systèmes de traçabilité sont basés sur des permis en papier qui sont facilement falsifiables. Dans ce manuscrit, nous définissons les élé-ments d'un système de traçabilité basé sur des outils génomiques qui pourrait être utile pour le secteur forestier canadien. Nous présentons aussi plusieurs exemples de la façon dont les outils de la génomique sont ou pourraient être utilisés. Des données et des outils génomiques sont actuellement disponibles en grandes quantités pour plusieurs essences forestières et ceux-ci pourraient constituer la base du développement de tels systèmes de traçabilité. Notre objectif est de démontrer qu'il y a actuellement de grandes opportunités pour développer de tels systèmes qui pourraient s'appliquer au secteur forestier canadien.

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“…79 Certification programs came about to demonstrate the commercial viability of a ''sustainable'' alternative to historical practices that viewed forests as an infinite resource. Currently, about 10% of the world's forests are in a certification program, 79 and increased international awareness of and demand for chain of custody and supply chain verification in wood and wood products 80 further supports a transition toward sustainable forest products production. With enhanced and interdisciplinary research into wood and wood products, we have the expectation that high-value products and feedstocks from forest materials will help increase the monetary value of forests and, thus, support their sustainable management.…”

Section: Sustainable Forest Management For Renewable Wood Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not Just Lumber—Using Wood in the Sustainable Future of Materials, Chemicals, and Fuels

Jakes

Arzola-Villegas

Bergman

et al. 2016

JOM

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Forest-derived biomaterials can play an integral role in a sustainable and renewable future. Research across a range of disciplines is required to develop the knowledge necessary to overcome the challenges of incorporating more renewable forest resources in materials, chemicals, and fuels. We focus on wood specifically because in our view, better characterization of wood as a raw material and as a feedstock will lead to its increased utilization. We first give an overview of wood structure and chemical composition and then highlight current topics in forest products research, including (1) industrial chemicals, biofuels, and energy from woody materials; (2) wood-based activated carbon and carbon nanostructures; (3) development of improved wood protection treatments; (4) massive timber construction; (5) wood as a bioinspiring material; and (6) atomic simulations of wood polymers. We conclude with a discussion of the sustainability of wood as a renewable forest resource. WOOD'S 390 MILLIONTH BIRTHDAYWood is one of the major innovations of land plants ''invented'' some 390 million years ago. Wood enabled individual plants to increase their stature and persistence in the environment, facilitating the ability of trees to play roles in landscape change and biome composition and to fundamentally alter the global cycling of water, minerals, and carbon. Since prehistoric times, humans have found wood invaluable for meeting many of their needs, including energy, tools, and shelter-not surprising given its near-ubiquity, versatility, and renewability. Only in the comparatively recent past have other nonrenewable natural resources, such as fossil fuels or metal ores, become the resources of choice to meet our material needs. We postulate that wood will play an increasing role in the sustainability of our future materials through both expansion of uses for current forest products and development of alternatives to materials currently derived from nonrenewable resources. Life cycle assessments, which categorize energy consumption and emission profiles for products over their whole life cycle, 1,2 consistently show that many wood-based materials use less fossil fuels to produce than do competing materials.3,4 Using wood products can also lower atmospheric carbon dioxide levels because growing forests capture carbon and harvested wood products store the accumulated carbon while in service.Historically, wood research has been the purview of wood technologists; however, we see the future of wood research as interdisciplinary, collaborative, quantitative, and meaningful, both scientifically

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Forensic timber identification: It's time to integrate disciplines to combat illegal logging

Cited by 179 publications

References 72 publications

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Stabilize Timber Production

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Stabilize Timber Production

Genomic tools for traceability: Opportunities, challenges and perspectives for the Canadian forestry sector

Not Just Lumber—Using Wood in the Sustainable Future of Materials, Chemicals, and Fuels

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