Challenges to implementation of high-throughput genotyping technologies for DNA forensics in the timber market

Chapter 4.3. Much has been made recently of the power of DNA-based approaches to deliver a system that can monitor timber movements and help to reduce the volume of illegally logged timber. In particular the power of genomic (as opposed to marker-based genetic) technologies is being hailed as the way forward, with such methods able to deliver the greatly increased resolution needed to track timber movements in sufficient detail to permit enforcement. Allied to legal developments in major consumer markets and new frameworks to shape agreements between producers and consumer countries, it seems the time is ripe for major steps forward in control of illegal logging. However, whilst it is true that genomic tools have great potential to vastly improve detection of the geographic patterns of genetic structure that would underpin such a system, numerous challenges lie ahead. In particular, there is great urgency as forest - and particularly tree species of major market interest - continues to be lost at a significant rate. So these technological developments are taking place against a time limit, beyond which the resource we aim to protect will already be lost. In addition, accessibility to the technology and the gap between an operational system and reality on the ground remain major hurdles. In this paper, I focus on some of the challenges to implementation of an operational system using DNA forensics to monitor timber movements, focussing on the tropics as this is where the challenges are currently greatest. Although there is clear potential, several years since research efforts began to be trained on this issue, a working system has yet to emerge and it is valid to ask why this might be, as a means of drawing attention to the bottlenecks to achieving a successful system and to call for major investment to overcome them.