Información sobre el proyecto/actividad

With increasing international demand for precious tropical timber and the difficulties to prevent illegal logging, pressure on source countries is rising to ensure legal and sustainable timber trade. In order to help source countries with trade control, the parties of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreed on listing all Dalbergia and Diospyros spp. populations from Madagascar on Appendix II. The listing of these species is helping CITES authorities and other involved institutions to better control the trade of wood products derived from these precious timbers on the international market and is an important step towards a sustainable use of these species. Nonetheless, to enforce CITES regulations, reliable and fast identification techniques for logs and wood products are needed. The main objectives of the here proposed project are to 1) establish a fully documented reference sample collection for all Dalbergia species currently listed in CITES Appendix I-III and 2) to finalize identification systems that are being developed based on DNA analysis and wood anatomy for all Dalbergia species currently listed in CITES. Experience gained from Dalbergia will then be used to 3) assess the feasibility of developing an identification system for the species-rich ebony genus Diospyros and 4) to assess the feasibility of including look-alike species of both taxa. Reaching these goals will help Madagascar with the implementation of the Action plan for Dalbergia and Diospyros agreed at the CoP16.