Kew Tree Library Leads Advanced Technology War Against Illegal Logging | Environment

The crumpled wood blinds in Peter Gbadon's lab at Kew Gardens are chipped and look sad. Their manufacturers had claimed that they were pine but customs officers were cautious. And their suspicions were well founded. Gbadon, Kew's lumber and lumber researcher, discovered that the blinds were not pine but ramin.

"All raminiers, which grow in southeast Asia, are at risk and trading in their timber is illegal," said Gbadon. "On that occasion, we were lucky and prevented people from taking advantage of this trade."

But elsewhere, illegal logging threatens to overwhelm the timber trade. It is estimated that around 30% of sales are wood from illegal sources. According to WWF, a charity dedicated to the protection of wildlife, illegal logging is slashed annually over more than 20,000 square miles to provide furniture and flooring for homes. Devastation compromises the planet's ability to absorb carbon dioxide and destroys endangered animal habitats, including orangutans and tigers.

As a result, Kew researchers joined environmental advocates, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), to set up the Global Wood Reference Project to create an identification system. important forests and a database to identify wood sources. "Much is being done to reduce illegal logging by setting up audit systems to certify wood supply chains," said Roger Young of AgroIsoLab, another partner. of the project. "But these efforts are compromised because paperwork systems are fallible and until now, there was no way to verify the origin and species of timber once it had been harvest. The new project aims to remedy this. "

The project has two arms. First, the scientists working at Kew will confirm the exact species of the tree from the samples sent to him, Gbadon said. "The lab already has several thousand samples of wood in its coffers, but these will be enriched with new samples for the new project of identification," he added. Once this is established, other reference collections will be set up in other countries.

For example, Kew will receive this year more than 200 new samples collected by the FSC and from timber species traded in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Peru. The goal is to create a large library of tree references at Kew, whose samples and expertise can then be distributed to other laboratories. "This is a unique opportunity to develop a library of georeferenced wood samples," said Michael Marus of the FSC.

Being able to spot tree species is not enough, however, to stop illegal logging. Locating the growth of this wood is also crucial. "All ramin trading is illegal, so identifying the material in imported products is enough to impound it, but other woods are more complex," said Young. "It's different with teak. Trade from Thailand is allowed but the same timber from Myanmar is illegal. We must therefore be able to locate where a sample of teak has been grown. "

AgroIsoLab scientists will use isotope models of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon found in wood to determine their exact growth locations. "The soil in an area produces a specific isotopic signature that we can recognize," he told Observer. "We are already using this technology to identify food sources, such as bacon. From the isotopic signature of a rasher, it can be said that it comes from Great Britain or Denmark.

"And it's important. Danish bacon is cheaper because hog standards are less stringent. We can detect when cheap Danish bacon is sold as a very expensive British variety.

The new project aims to do exactly the same thing for wood. "We want to be able to take a sample – in furniture oak, beech flooring or table pine – and provide its true identity and place of growth," said Young. "If we can do that, we will have a chance to put an end to illegal timber sales."