Best Practice Guide for Forensic Timber Identification PC ICPO OI I NTERPOL INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM ON COMBATING WILDLIFE CRIME Photo credits: Top cover picture: Mahogany (Swietenia) shipment: Port of Rotterdam. Bottom cover picture: Reference collection at the Thünen Institute of Wood Research: The Thünen Institute. Cover picture right: Scales of justice: UNODC Laboratory and Scientific Section and Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME Vienna Best Practice Guide for Forensic Timber Identification UNITED NATIONS New York, 2016 Note Operating and experimental conditions are reproduced from the original reference materials, including unpublished methods, validated and used as per the list of references. A number of alternative conditions and substitution of named commercial products may provide comparable results in many cases, but any modification has to be validated before it is integrated into laboratory routines. Mention of names of firms and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations. ST/NAR/52 © United Nations, August 2016. All rights reserved worldwide. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This publication has not been formally edited. Publishing production: English, Publishing and Library Section, United Nations Office at Vienna. Acknowledgements This Guide was prepared by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime (GPWLFC) and the Labora- tory and Scientific Section (LSS). The Guide reflects the discussions of, and con- tributions from, subject-matter experts who participated in expert group meetings organized by UNODC, under the umbrella of the International Consortium on Com- bating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) in Vienna, 10-12 December 2014 and 7-9 October 2015. The GPWLFC (headed by Jorge Eduardo Ríos) and the LSS (headed by Justice Tettey) wish to express their appreciation and thanks to the following experts who participated in the expert group meetings and/or contributed to the development of the Guide: Kingsley Barraclough, Operations Director, Samplexx Ltd, United Kingdom; Hans Beeckman, Head, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium; Jean Lagarde Betti, Lecturer, University of Douala, Cameroon; Markus Boner, CEO, Agroisolab GmbH, Germany; Jez W. B. Braga, Doctor at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Brasilia, Brazil; Birgit Braun, Independent consultant for nature conservation, Germany; Thomas A. Brown, CAMS Deputy Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States of America; Steve Carmody, Senior Law Enforcement Expert, UNODC, Australia; Guy Clarke MBE, CITES Enforcement Higher Officer, Border Force, United Kingdom; Tyler B. Coplen, Director of the Reston Stable Isotope Laboratory, United States Geological Survey, United States of America; Vera T. Rauber Coradin, Doctor at the Forest Products Laboratory- LPF, Brazilian Forest Service, Brazil; Maaike De Ridder, Postdoctoral Fellow, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium; Bernd Degen, Head, Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Germany; Hamanda Diniz Campos Carvalho, Brazilian Federal Police, Brazil; Jean-François Dubois, Senior Wildlife Officer in National Operations Support, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada; Edgard O. Espinoza, Deputy Director, National Fish & Wildlife Forensic Laboratory, United States of America; Indra Exploitasia Semiawan, Director of the Center for Forestry and Environmental Engineering, Min- istry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia; Shelley Gardner, Illegal Logging Pro- gram Coordinator, USDA Forest Service and USDOJ INTERPOL Washington, United States of America; Samantha Gunasekara, Deputy Director, Sri Lanka Customs, Sri Lanka; Waldemar Hasiholan, Lecturer, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia; Valerie Hipkins, Director of the National Forest Genetics Labo- ratory, USDA Forest Service, United States of America; Anton Huitema, CITES Officer with Customs, Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Stephen Kenny, Techni- cal Director, Samplexx Ltd, United Kingdom; Chen Hin Keong, Timber Trade Pro- gramme Leader, TRAFFIC, Malaysia; Peter Kitin, Senior Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Gerald Koch, Scientific Director, Thünen Insti- tute of Wood Research, Germany; Sang-Hyup Lee, Environmental Program Manager, iii World Customs Organization, South Korea; Frederic Lens, Assistant Professor, Natu- ralis Biodiversity Center, The Netherlands; Andrew J. Lowe, Professor of Plant Conservation Biology and Director of the Centre for Conservation Science and Technology, University of Adelaide, Australia; Iris Moulijn, CITES Officer with Customs, Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Rob Ogden, Director, TRACE Wild- life Forensics Network, United Kingdom; Tereza C. M. Pastore, Doctor at the Forest Products Laboratory-LPF, Brazilian Forest Service, Brazil; George Phocas, Special Agent Attaché to South East Asia, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Thailand; Rocky Piaggione, Senior Counsel for the Environmental Crimes Section, United States Department of Justice, United States of America; Joseph Poux, Deputy Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section, United States Department of Justice, United States of America; Bako Harisoa Ravaomanalina, Lecturer, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar; Milena Sosa Schmidt, Scientific Support Officer (Flora) at the Scientific Support Unit, CITES Secretariat, Switzerland; Julius Thaler, Senior Counsel, The World Bank, United States of America; Chris Watts, Managing Director, Samplexx Ltd, United Kingdom; Alex C. Wiedenhoeft, Research Botanist and Team Leader at the Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, United States of America; Yafang Yin, Professor at the Chinese Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, China. GPWLFC and LSS wish to express their gratitude and special thanks to Eleanor Dormontt, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Conservation Science and Technol- ogy, University of Adelaide, Australia, for her substantial contribution to the devel- opment of the Guide. The valuable comments and contribution of the following experts to the peer-review process is also gratefully acknowledged: Ken Farr, Canadian Forest Service CITES Scientific Authority, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Canada; Steven Johnson, General Coordinator, International Tropical Timber Organization, Japan; Pia Jonsson, Enforcement Sup- port Officer, CITES Secretariat, Switzerland; Simon Robertson, Senior Governance Specialist, Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, The World Bank, United States of America; Davyth Stewart, Coordinator, Natural Resources, INTER- POL Environmental Security Program, France; Edward van Asch, ICCWC Support Officer, CITES Secretariat, Switzerland. The preparation of the Guide was coordinated by Sinéad Brophy of the GPWLFC together with Olga Kuzmianok, Programme Officer, GPWLFC and Iphigenia Naidis, Scientific Affairs Officer, LSS. The contributions of Dimosthenis Chrysikos and Nicole Quijano-Evans are highly appreciated. iv Abbreviations ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations CBM Coordinated Border Management programme CCP UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme CCPCJ United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice CEN Customs Enforcement Network CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES MA CITES Management Authority CoP Conference of the Parties DART TOFMS Direct Analysis in Real Time, Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid EGM Expert Group Meeting GTTN Global Timber Trafficking Network IAWA International Association of Wood Anatomists ICCWC International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime IFSA International Forensic Strategic Alliance INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization IRT Incident Response Team ITTO International Tropical Timber Organization LSS Laboratory and Scientific Section MLA Mutual Legal Assistance MLAT Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty NCB National Central Bureau (INTERPOL) NEST National Environmental Security Taskforce NIRS Near Infrared Spectroscopy PCU Port Control Unit QA Quality assurance QMS Quality management system SAWEN South Asian Wildlife Enforcement Network SHERLOC Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws against Organized Crime portal SLU Sustainable Livelihoods Unit SNP Single nucleotide polymorphisms SOP Standard Operating Procedures STR/SSR Short tandem repeats/simple sequence repeats SWFS Society for Wildlife Forensic Science v SWGWILD Scientific Working Group for Wildlife Forensic Sciences TRACE TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime WCO World Customs Organization WEN Wildlife Enforcement Network WEN-SA Wildlife Enforcement Network–Southern Africa WIST Wildlife Incident Support Team vi Contents Page Acknowledgements ................................................. iii Abbreviations ..................................................... v 1. Introduction .............................................. 1 Part I. From search decisions to forensic timber identification: Information for law enforcement ....................................... 5 2. Law enforcement