Abstract
Our study highlights the utilization of a genetic database for wood-origin identification in Intsia palembanica, a valuable heavy hardwood from the tropical forests. This forensic tool is essential for strengthening the verification of legality in the wood supply chain from the forest to the end-users. An increasing number of rules and regulations are being put in place to promote sustainable practice in the timber trade, one of which involves ensuring that importers declare the correct species name and source of geographic origin of the timber. We aimed to determine the origin of the I. palembanica seed source used in the early establishment on the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) campus. DNA samples of I. palembanica individuals from the FRIM campus were obtained and analyzed using four chloroplast (cp) DNA markers to characterize the haplotype variants for population identification. In addition, the DNA samples were also genotyped at 14 short tandem repeat (STR) loci for individual identification. Individual assignment to the possible geographic origin was done through an assignment test. On the basis of our recently developed I. palembanica genetic databases, the I. palembanica seed source for the early establishment was inferred to be originated from a mixture of several sources, with a large portion from the southern region (89%) and a relatively small portion from the northern region (11%) of Peninsular Malaysia. The I. palembanica seed source used for the early establishment on the century old FRIM campus was inferred to be originated from several forest reserves located not far from the planting sites. This study proves the applicability of the DNA method in supply-chain verification, where an unknown I. palembanica tree can be traced to its geographic origin using genetic databases.
Highlights
World forests cover 4.06 billion hectares of area, equivalent to 31% of the global land area, and they are home to most of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity [1,2]
60,000 tree species have been recorded, more than 13% of which have been categorized as globally threatened in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, due in part to the deforestation and forest degradation happening at alarming rates [3,4]
This study shows that the I. palembanica chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotype database has limited assignment power to infer geographic origin, whereby only 14% of the planted individuals were assigned to the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia
Summary
World forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (ha) of area, equivalent to 31% of the global land area, and they are home to most of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity [1,2]. 60,000 tree species have been recorded, more than 13% of which have been categorized as globally threatened in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, due in part to the deforestation and forest degradation happening at alarming rates [3,4]. In view of the threat to global biodiversity and forest ecosystem, an increasing number of laws were tabled by several countries to protect natural forests by promoting sustainable practice in the timber trade, ensuring that. Forests 2020, 11, 1171 importers declare the species and geographic origin of the timber and, most importantly, their legal harvest. These laws include the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act in Canada (1992), the Lacey Act of the United States (2008), the European. To support the implementation of these laws, various wood identification methods and timber tracking tools are currently available, such as wood anatomy, genetics, stable isotopes, and direct analysis in real time (DART) coupled with time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and near-infrared (NIR)
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