DOST wood ID system vital in anti-logging campaign

MANILA, Philippines - A unit of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has become a vital force in the country’s anti-illegal logging campaign with its development and operation of a wood identification (ID) system.

The DOST’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI)’s wood ID service is now being used to determine if the species of lumber confiscated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) came from natural and residual forests.

Ramiro Escobin, Scientist 1 at FPRDI’s Anatomy and Forest Botany Section-Material Science Division, said yesterday that upon request of DENR’s Forest Management Bureau, FPRDI experts conduct on-site ID of lumber confiscated at the Manila North Harbor and lumberyards.

Wood samples are then brought to the Institute’s wood library for identification.

“Our reports serve as evidence when DENR files charges against illegal loggers and ship owners that transport the lumber. In addition, the institute’s wood anatomists are at times tapped as expert witnesses during court hearings,” Escobin added.

Wood ID is the process of determining the correct identity of a wood sample based on its structure. Accurate ID is made possible through the FPRDI’s wood library, the only one of its kind in the country which hosts 16,348 specimens of Philippine and 5,274 foreign wood samples from about 150 countries.

Executive Order No. 23 (EO 23) strictly prohibits the cutting and harvesting of trees in natural and second growth forests. Only trees grown in industrial plantations can be legally harvested.

Aside from the DENR and FPRDI, other members of the task force include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation-Department of Justice, and Bureau of Customs.

Now on its fifth year, the FPRDI wood ID service is also useful to the construction, builders’ woodworks, furniture, handicraft, and maritime industry that need assurance about the identity of their raw materials.