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Innovations
Timber projects
Illegal logging and trade in timber are key causes of the rapid deforestation around the world.
Following development of the stable-isotope method for use in timber, this method has now assumed central importance, alongside genetic methods, for geographic mapping of timber.
Stable isotopes are to be used to help create ways of checking the geographical origin of timber and timber products, independant from documents and certficates.
As part of this drive, global databases for timber are being set up and forms of differentiation are being devised under current projects with organizations such as the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF, Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt [the German Federal Environmental Foundation]) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit [German Society for Technical Cooperation] (GTZ). A particular focus of these projects are the tropical woods mahogany and teak. TÜV Rheinland Agroisolab hopes that, through the work the company has been doing, we will be able to drive forward the legal enactment of declarations of origin in the timber sector, as is already the case in the food industry.
