Independent tools are needed to verify the geographic origin of timber. Why? To curb the trade in illegal timber. To verify whether timber is produced without causing deforestation. Or to create transparency in the timber production chain.
It is increasingly important for the timber industry to provide evidence on the origin of traded wood. International legislation such as the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the future EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) require documents and certificates on origin. Yet, these can be falsified. Therefore, it is important to independently verify wood origin, based on the properties of the wood.
At Timtrace, we develop and test methods to verify the claimed origin of tropical timber.
These methods can help timber trading companies to support the paper trail showing they source timber legally and create transparency in their value chain. It can help governmental authorities to verify trade claims and combat the illegal timber trade. And it enables environmental organizations to verify the origin of traded timber.
LATEST BLOG POSTS
- Stable isotope ratios in wood show little potential for sub-country origin verification in Central AfricaNew paper out in Forest Ecology and Management! Abstract Origin verification of timber is essential to expose origin fraud and […]
- A new method for the timber tracing toolbox: applying multi-element analysis to determine wood originLaura E Boeschoten, Mart Vlam, Ute Sass-Klaassen, Barbara Rocha Venancio Meyer-Sand, Ulfa Adzkia, Gaël UD Bouka, Jannici C U Ciliane-Madikou, […]
- What does the new European regulation on deforestation imply for timber tracing?Last December there was very positive news on a topic usually associated with very negative emotions: deforestation. Political agreement was […]