Timber Tracking Project IPB-WRI: Collection of physical timber reference material and setting up a reference data building pipeline for DNA of commercial timber species (Diospyros celebica. Bakh)

Ebony (Diospyros celebica Bakh.) is a tree species endemic to Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, a producer of luxury sawn timber that has high commercial value in Indonesia. However, exploitation that does not consider sustainable production and uncontrolled illegal logging practices has led to a decline in the ebony population in natural forests. Although the government has issued the Indonesian government the Minister of Forestry Decree No. 31 / KPTS-IV / 86 of 1986 regarding the control of ebony or the prohibition of new logging, but the practice of illegal logging continues until 2019. Apart from that, other challenges such as timber laundering, where illegal wood is mixed with legal timber and both are certified as legal, must also be faced because it is very difficult to distinguish between these legal and illegal logs in which logs look physically identical. Certainly, a method that can accurately distinguish the two origins of the wood is desirable and DNA identification is one that allows the identification and analysis of unique inherent variations in wood that can provide information on the species, origin and location of individual stumps or tree stands. Therefore, this study aims (i) to collect physical timber reference material and extract its associated DNA for the species Diospyros celebica (Ebony) and (ii) to build a genetic reference database for ebony (Diospyros celebica Bakh.) of 16 existing natural populations in South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi. This research is also conducted to provide wood ID services for the Indonesian timber enforcement community in the coming years.

乌木（Diospyros celebica Bakh.）为印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛特有树种，其产出的高档锯材在印尼国内拥有极高商业价值。然而，忽视可持续生产的开发活动与无监管的非法采伐行为，已导致天然林内乌木种群数量大幅下降。尽管印尼政府于1986年颁布《林业部第31/KPTS-IV/86号政令》，对乌木采伐管控及新增采伐禁令作出规定，但非法采伐现象直至2019年仍持续存在。除此之外，木材洗白（timber laundering）这一挑战亦亟待应对：非法木材会被混入合法木材中，并一同被认证为合法木材，由于二者外观高度相似，难以区分合法与非法原木。因此，研发可精准区分两类木材的方法实属必要，而DNA鉴定技术正是可行方案之一：该技术可识别并分析木材固有的独特遗传变异，以此获取树种、产地以及单个伐桩或林分的相关信息。据此，本研究旨在达成两大目标：（i）收集乌木（Diospyros celebica Bakh.）的木材实物参考材料并提取其关联DNA；（ii）构建涵盖苏拉威西南部、西部与中部共16个现存天然种群的乌木遗传参考数据库。本研究同时还将为未来印尼木材执法机构提供木材身份鉴定服务。