Technologies such as isotope, genetic and mass spectrometry can also help determine the origin of specific wood samples. Such testing can often determine the forest from where the wood originated provided samples from that forest are available for comparison.
FSC and its partners Kew Botanic Gardens, Agroisolab, WRI and US Forest Service International Program has created the World Forest ID consortium which is building the world’s largest geo-referenced, open-source, wood sample collection. With this collection a range of scientific methods are being used to confirm or challenge claims about the species and provenance of forest products, to tackle fraud, illegal logging and deforestation.
Today, anyone questioning the true origin of FSC certified timber can inquire with FSC to determine if wood identification can be applied as an additional due diligence measure.
The project in Gabon
In 2019 and 2020, several expeditions were conducted in Gabon (Central Africa) to collect samples from three FSC certified concessions: CBG, CEB/Precious Woods and Rougier. Gabon is the first country in the whole African continent to be hosting such an innovative project.
The project was led by FSC in partnership with Agroisolab and Kew Botanic Gardens and the local support of the Ministry of Forest and Environment, the Gabonese national parks and the research institution CENAREST/IRET.
A local researcher, Cynel Moundounga was trained to follow the sampling protocol which encompasses the use of a tool specially designed by Agroisolab and called pickering punch. 155 samples from a dozen species including Okoume, Ozigo, Padouk, Moabi, Bilinga, Okan were collected in the FSC certified concessions and several locations in the national parks of Moukalaba Doudou and Birogou.
Promising results
On Friday, June 19th, 2020, the results for the 2019 collection were presented to the Minister of Forests from Gabon who acknowledged the promising results and is willing to consider support to the World Forest ID to expand the sampling collection.
World Forest ID organized a webinar to present to Lee White, Minister of Forest and Environment and his team, the results of the tree samples collection that was led in Gabon in 2019.
The webinar was titled: World Forest ID Gabon Reference Collection, 2019 REPORT: Origin Authentication using Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis of Timber Reference Samples from Two Forest Concessions in Gabon.
Representants from WFID presented the webinar which was attended by representatives from the three FSC certified concessions where collection took place in Gabon. Alfred Ngomanda, High Commissioner for CENAREST/IRET and Aurélie Flore Koumba, Scientific Advisor at the National Park Agency (ANPN) also participated in the Zoom conference.
Nathalie Bouville, FSC Africa Communication Manager, presented the background partners of the 2019 timber referencing project in Gabon. She thanked the Gabon partner organisations that enabled the expedition and especially Cynel Moundounga, Research Attache of IRET, who led much of the work.
Agroisolab presented the results of Stable Isotope Reference Analysis (SIRA) for samples of timber collected from two FSC concessions in Gabon. SIRA discrimination is demonstrated for the two species Okoume (Aucoumea klaineana) and Ozigo (Dacryodes buettneri) between the two referenced concessions. More samples from other species and locations would be a welcomed addition to the project.
At the end of the presentation, Lee White, Ministry of Forests thanked the partners for their work, commenting “These results justify next steps, let us know what help we can provide.” With regards to comments that sulphur SIRA signatures are associated with proximity to coastlines, Minister White cautioned that ‘discrimination between the coast and sedimentary basins is not enough.’ He also agreed that collaboration with existing genetic work to identify timber origin and species would be worthwhile. All participants agreed that continuing to build in-country capacity for these technologies is of great importance.