Forensic tools are needed to verify the geographic origin of timber. Why? Because we need to stop the illegal timber trade and promote sustainable forest management.
It is increasingly important for the timber industry to provide evidence on the origin of traded timber. International legislation such as the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) require documents and certificates on origin. These documents, however, cannot always be trusted. Timtrace provides tools to independently verify the origin of timber, based on the properties of the wood itself.
Since 2014 we have been developing and testing methods to verify the claimed origin of timber. We have mainly focused on tropical timbers, because of the high incidence of illegal trade there. But are increasingly expanding our efforts to timbers outside the tropics too.
It is our mission to provide both timber traders and law enforcement agencies with the tools to verify the paper trail showing they source timber legally and create transparency in their value chain.
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… Lees meer: Stable isotope ratios in wood show little potential for sub-country origin verification in Central Africa
- 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,… Lees meer: A new method for the timber tracing toolbox: applying multi-element analysis to determine wood origin
- 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… Lees meer: What does the new European regulation on deforestation imply for timber tracing?