The new IAWA Newsletter is out

The new IAWA Newsletter is out

August 15, 2019

Network, Research institute, Timber tracking

The International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) just published their latest edition of the newsletter and we are happy to help spread the good word out. This issue highlights the outcomes of recent events such as the IAWA-IUFRO International Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities for Updating Wood Identification (supported by GTTN). […]

BBC’s People fixing the world about GTTN

August 5, 2019

Network, Research institute, Timber tracking

The tree detectives episode of BBC’s People fixing the world program clearly explains what GTTN stands for with concrete examples. In the podcast, the reporter talks to a forest concession manager in the Solomon Islands, where there are cases of legally sourced wood shipments mixed with wood from illegal sources. […]

Building a Future: Lumber Poaching in Oregon and Brazil

July 4, 2019

Governmental organisation, Network, NGO, Research institute, Timber tracking

This video of KCET focuses on innovative methods to stop illegal logging, both in Oregon and Brazil, where citizens and scientists are working closely together. A team of scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Laboratory in Oregon is working on a forensic database, aiming that one day this will […]

Kew Gardens’ historic archive to fight illegal logging

February 22, 2019

Network, Research institute, Timber tracking

The Royal Botanic Gardens will open their library of specimens with DNA and isotope data to help identifying species of illegally logged wood. This data can also give information about the geographical origin of wood. The project also aims to collect over 200 samples from up to five commonly traded wood […]

TIMTRACE: new forensic timber tracing service

January 18, 2019

Network, Research institute, Timber tracking, University

Professor Pieter Zuidema, from the Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group at Wageningen University recently talked to Gesche Schifferdecker, GTTN Secretariat, about a new forensic timber tracing service Wageningen is currently developing, and the different partners involved. G.S.: What are the advantages of genetic wood identification? Why is this method used […]

Timber tracking and trade in South America – a report from GTTN’s Regional Workshop in Peru

November 26, 2018

Governmental organisation, Network, NGO, Research institute, Timber tracking, University

Between November 7 and 9, the GTTN Secretariat organized the Regional Workshop for Latin America in Lima, Perú. Over 70 representatives from academia, law enforcement agencies, customs, international organizations and NGOs actively participated in the different sessions. The workshop brought together stakeholders who do usually not communicate: a nature protection […]

Identifying a wood species in 2 seconds

November 6, 2018

Research institute, University

In one of our recent posts we introduced a project with African scientists under the lead of professor Alex Wiedenhoeft from the Center of Wood Anatomy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison using the new wood ID technology Xylotron. According to Wiedenhoeft, it is “basically a really fancy USB microscope”: […]

Battling Illegal Timber Trade with the Xylotron

October 23, 2018

Network, Research institute, Timber tracking, University

Four researchers from Ghana are currently on campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to learn the ins and outs of UW-Madison wood identification technology in an effort to bring the knowledge back to their home country. Emmanuel Ebenyenle, Senior Research Scientist at the CSIR Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, and […]

Indonesia develops rapid wood identification system

October 21, 2018

Governmental organisation, Research institute, Timber tracking

As a result of a collaboration between the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and the Ministries of Environment and Forestry and Research, Technology and Higher Education an innovative technology for wood identification called AIKO has been developed in Indonesian language. A lead researcher, Esa Prakasa, said AIKO is a mobile phone […]

Celebrating 5 years of EUTR

October 18, 2018

Governmental organisation, Network, NGO, Research institute, Timber tracking

On October 8-9, 2018, GTTN members met with representatives from the European Commission, the US Government, ITTO, NGOs, scientists, competent authorities, and the private sector at the five-year celebration of the implementation of the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the Thünen Centre of Competence on the origin of timber. […]