From the end of 2025, EU Regulation 2023/1115 is expected to come into effect. Its modest name belies its potentially industry-transforming impact. …According to Interpol, as much as 30% of the entire global trade in timber may come from illegal sources. Illicit timber is the world’s most profitable natural resource crime, worth as much as USD 150 billion each year. …For the timber industry, the impact could be seismic.
US-based non-profit World Forest ID may have a solution. Formed in 2017 by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, the US Forestry Service, UK isotope testing experts Agroisolab, and the Forest Stewardship Council, World Forest ID is pioneering a new testing technique that aims to pinpoint the geographic location from which a piece of wood originated to within 10 kilometres. ..The resulting ‘wood anatomy’ database can be used to identify the species of a sample taken from any product.