Abstract
Illegal logging is a major problem in many European countries. Recent progress in molecular biology, however, has significantly improved the ability to accurately identify wood material. In this paper, the first application of microsatellite DNA markers is described in a case of illegal logging of European ash wood in Polish State Forests. The genetic fingerprints of seized ash wood samples were determined using six nuclear and four chloroplast microsatellite loci, characterized by sufficient stringency in forensic analyses. By comparing the DNA profiles obtained, the origin of one sample of ash wood used as evidence material was confirmed, from among three samples serving as reference material with 99.99999% of probability. This work demonstrates how DNA authenticity testing can serve as an important technical tool in monitoring the legality of the suspected ash timber and confirms the utility of these techniques in detecting illegally logged timber in general.
Highlights
European ash is an important species in biodiversity conservation of forest ecosystems and in economic terms, providing habitat for many fauna and flora, and timber for the building and furniture industries
It is difficult to estimate the extent of illegal logging contributing to this trade, the European Commission is conscious of potential illegal sources of wood products arriving into EU markets
The probability of the DNA profile of the 278 European ash samples from three different forest stands in Poland showing a random match with the samples taken from the evidence samples was very low, equivalent to 1 in a ten million for the 6 nuclear SSR loci (PID = 0.0000001). These results clearly demonstrate the high power of a single sample discrimination equal to 0.9999999 (99.99999%) that can be attributed to the 6 nuclear markers used in this work on European ash wood
Summary
European ash is an important species in biodiversity conservation of forest ecosystems and in economic terms, providing habitat for many fauna and flora, and timber for the building and furniture industries. Among several negative factors impacting on forest ecosystems, human activities including poaching, vandalism or illegal logging all contribute to degradation. It is difficult to estimate the extent of illegal logging contributing to this trade, the European Commission is conscious of potential illegal sources of wood products arriving into EU markets. EU Regulation No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council, known as the (illegal) Timber Regulation (EUTR), entered into force on 3 March 2013, defining obligations for operators who place timber and timber products on the market to possess legal certification of timber or wood provenance (European Union Trade Regulation 2013)
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