When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Germany

Using DNA To Cut Down On Illegal Wood Trafficking

Scientists in Germany are using DNA to test the real origins of lumber from around the globe.

Germany imports 6 million cubic meters of illegal wood every year (DH Wright)
Germany imports 6 million cubic meters of illegal wood every year (DH Wright)

HAMBURG - Scientists in Germany are unleashing a new tool to stop illegal wood trafficking: DNA tests. Labels, after all, can lie. DNA doesn't.

Germany imports up to 6 million cubic meters of illegal wood every year – roughly the volume of 2,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to Professor Mattias Dieter of the Hamburg-based Thünen Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries.

Cracking down on the illegal wood trade is no easy task, especially since rules about what exactly makes a piece of wood legal or not are themselves complicated. "Illegal" can mean several things, ranging from wood types listed in the Endangered Species Act to wood from trees felled in protected areas. In some cases the wood comes from legal trees, but was prematurely – and therefore illegally – harvested.

Proving what woods are illegal in Germany is made even more difficult by the huge number of legal woods traded – some 600, explains Gerald Koch of the Thünen Institute for Wood Technology and Wood Biology.

But there is one way to nail down the real origin of a piece of wood: examine its particular genetic makeup. Thanks to his trusty computer and a collection of 50,000 samples, Koch and his colleagues in Hamburg can provide, usually within hours, the exact information on wood type from any sample provided by customs, importers, builders, or private individuals.

In some cases the purpose of the examination is not to establish illegality of the wood, but fraud, as when sellers claim a wood is a particularly valuable (and more expensive) type when this is in fact not the case.

"In the next few years, hundreds of new types of wood are going to be coming on to the market, many of them lesser known species," says Koch, who expects that over time DNA testing – which is presently possible but more time-consuming and expensive – will become more routine. Such testing is presently conducted only when it is necessary to establish the country or region a specific wood comes from.

Genetic testing is "a high art"

Bernd Degen, who heads the Thünen Institute for Forest Genetics, says that DNA testing makes it possible to follow the whole chain of a wood from felling to finished product. The DNA of a tree cannot be changed or faked.

Extracting the DNA from wood is "a high art," he says. Degen is tight-lipped, however, when it comes to the details of the procedure he follows as he is currently applying for a patent. He does explain that for the method to become routinely used, wood samples from regions around the world have to be collected, analyzed and data-processed.

With his team, Degen has been traveling to Africa, South America and Russia to collect samples; in every location, samples are taken from 30 trees to create a solid statistical base. As one research project in Cameroon showed, DNA analysis can determine the provenance of wood to within 50 km of where it originated.

"Our goal here in Hamburg is to build, over the next three years, a data bank containing the genetic codes of 50 species of trees," says Degen. From there, a German "Wood Identification Competence Center" can be developed.

Read the original story in German by Norbert Lossau

*This is a digest item, not a direct translation

Photo - D H Wright

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

eyes on the U.S.

Murdoch's Resignation Adds To Biden Good Luck With The Media — A Repeat Of FDR?

Robert Murdoch's resignation from Fox News Corp. so soon before the next U.S. presidential elections begs the question of how directly media coverage has impacted Joe Biden as a figure, and what this new shift in power will mean for the current President.

Close up photograph of a opy of The Independent features Rupert Murdoch striking a pensive countenance as his 'News of the World' tabloid newspaper announced its last edition will run

July 7, 2011 - London, England: A copy of The Independent features Rupert Murdoch striking a pensive countenance as his 'News of the World' tabloid newspaper announced its last edition will run July 11, 2011 amid a torrid scandal involving phone hacking.

Mark Makela/ZUMA
Michael J. Socolow

Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America on Jan. 20, 2021.

Imagine if someone could go back in time and inform him and his communications team that a few pivotal changes in the media would occur during his first three years in office.

There’s the latest news that Rubert Murdoch, 92, stepped down as the chairperson of Fox Corp. and News Corp. on Sept. 21, 2023. Since the 1980s, Murdoch, who will be replaced by his son Lachlan, has been the most powerful right-wing media executivein the U.S.

While it’s not clear whether Fox will be any tamer under Lachlan, Murdoch’s departure is likely good news for Biden, who reportedly despises the media baron.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest