Enforcing a sustainable supply chain of forest products is driving the urgent need for forensic wood identification. Recent advances in database systems, artificial intelligence, and genetic and chemical analyses, demonstrate the capacity for improvement upon wood anatomy-based identifications, and are expected to fill the gaps in actual demand for reliable identifications. However, global cooperative efforts to improve the technologies, including sampling of reference materials, methodology development, reference database establishment, and data analysis in the service of forensic wood identification remain important.
At this event we will present recent research progress and the application of forensic wood identification technologies, will discuss the challenges inherent in species identification and origin traceability and will propose the establishment of a global network of wood information databases and discuss ways to effectively enhance international cooperation and capacity building. The capacity building needs to be enhanced widely, not only for forest officers but also for customs officers who work on country borders. Our aim is to combat illegal logging and its associated trade, and to support a sustainable supply chain of forest products through the development of advanced wood identification tools or systems which are applicable, efficient and accurate.