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Project properties |
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| Title | How can we trace the origin of tropical timber? A quantitative literature review |
| Group | Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | prof.dr. PA (Pieter) Zuidema
dr. M (Mart) Vlam |
| Examiner(s) | prof.dr. PA (Pieter) Zuidema |
| Contact info | Pieter.zuidema@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/09/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | Also possible as MSc internship
Illegal timber trade is a huge environmental problem, and is often associated with organized crime and deforestation. Legislation to fight illegal timber trade exist, but their enforcement required independent ways to verify timber origin. These tracing methods are based on measurements of the independent characteristics of wood, e.g., chemical or genetic traits. While these methods have been used in multiple scientific publications, they are currently not operational at a large scale. In addition, at this moment, there is no overview of the accuracy and spatial resolution of tracing methods. You will conduct a quantitative literature review to assemble information of scientific tracing studies on: species studies, locations included, method used, spatial resolution of tracing and tracing accuracy/success. You will use this information to compare the accuracy and resolution of methods and identify priority regions or timber groups. No field or lab work needed. Project internet page: www.timtrace.nl |
| Used skills | Topic(s): Sustainable forest management/ Ecophysiology / Tree ring analyses and wood anatomy
Region(s): America's/ Africa /Asia Climate(s): Tropical zone Corona proof: Yes |
| Requirements | - WEC-31806 Ecological Methods I, or a comparable alternative course;
- One FEM course (at least), depending on the topic of the thesis: FEM-30306 Forest Ecology and Forest Management, FEM-30806 Resource Dynamics Sustainable Utilization, FEM-32306 Agroforestry, or Models for Ecological Systems FEM-31806 |