Published scientific article on wood identification
As part of the research done by ENFORCE, an article has been been published in the journal Annals of Forest Science on the power of combining timber identification methods.
This case study on tropical timber identification forms a great example of how the combination of techniques is the best way forward for timber identification. The study reached this conclusion by analysing the identification performance of microscopic analysis of wood anatomy, chemical fingerprinting via DART-TOFMS and the combination of these methods on a set of 115 wood samples originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). ENFORCE employs this exact method combination for both its research and to answer optimally to incoming timber identification requests from government instances, industry players etc. Furthermore, the results reveal a significant number of species misdeclarations of timber sold on the pivotal small-scale markets in the DRC.
The article can be accessed via the following reference:
Monnoye, M., Wasukundi, M., Bourland, N. et al. Combining wood anatomy and chemical fingerprinting maximizes tropical timber identification success. Annals of Forest Science 82, 44 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-025-01317-3