Project/activity information

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Project/activity ID PD620/11 Rev.1 (M)
Title DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SPECIES IDENTIFICATION AND TIMBER TRACKING SYSTEM IN AFRICA WITH DNA FINGERPRINTS AND STABLE ISOTOPES
Status

COMPLETED

Executing agency
JOHANN HEINRICH VON THÜNEN INSTITUTE (vTI)
Budget
ITTO: $2.046.092,54
AUSTRALIA $30.000,00
GERMANY $1.695.342,00
GERMANY $220.751,00
USA $100.000,00
National counterpart: $220.932,00
Project total budget: $2.267.024,54
Summary
Illegal logging and associated trade are the cause of many economic and ecological problems both in timber producer and timber consumer countries. Although many legal instruments (EU timber trade regulation, US Lacey Act etc.) have been established to combat illegal logging and trade of illegally sourced timber, practical controls mechanisms to identify the tree species and geographic origin of wood and wood products are still lacking. DNA fingerprints and stables isotopes techniques use characters inherent in the timber (impossible to falsify) and the combination of both methods guarantee a high spatial resolution and a strong statistical power at higher cost efficiency for the control of origin of wood and wood products. This is a three year regional project on species identification and timber tracking system with DNA fingerprints and stable isotopes for several important timber tree species in the following countries in Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana and Kenya. During a seven month phase of the ITTO pre-project “TFL PPD 023/10“, the work-programme, the contribution and participation of the different partners from Europe, Australia and Africa as well as stakeholders’ involvement had been worked out. The project will focus primarily on the three target species chosen by representatives from timber producing countries: iroko (Milicia excelsa, M. regia), sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum) and ayou (Triplochiton scleroxylon). For these species there will be a sampling over the distribution area of the species leaves or cambium and wood samples. Gene markers will be developed that show a high genetic differentiation among trees of different locations and work also for processed timber. The samples will be screened for DNA fingerprints and stable isotopes and provide in this way a genetic and chemical reference data base to control the country of origin. Using DNA-fingerprints a tree by tree approach to control the chain of custody will be applied for Ayou and Sapelli in cooperation with the forestry commission, the forest research institute and timber companies in Ghana and Cameroon. Tools to identify the species will be further developed using both a wood anatomical approach and the DNA barcoding for 20 important African timber species. The statistical power and practical performance of the different assignment approaches (species identity, country of origin and chain of custody of individual trees) will be checked by means of blind tests. To facilitate capacity building and technology transfer, three reference labs in West Africa (Kumasi, Ghana), Central Africa (Libreville, Gabon) and East Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) will be established and staff of these labs and also from other African groups will be trained to apply DNA-techniques and wood anatomy to identify the tree species and to perform simple DNA tests to check the origin. The results of the project will be provided to the International Coordination Office for Tree Identification and Origin Assignment at Bioversity International in Malaysia. The Institute of Forest Genetics at the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute in Germany will be the executing agency and coordinator of the project. The executing agency will be supported by 14 collaborative agencies from Europe, Africa and Australia.
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