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CITES-Listed Timbers

Guy Clarke (HMCE) and Peter Gasson (Kew) being filmed by the BBC (for “A Year at Kew” series 2) examining a wooden blind suspected of being partly made of ramin wood (Gonystylus sp.).

There are 23 genera whose timber is regulated in international trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Our goal is to identify such timbers sent to us by HM Revenue and Customs or by timber importers wishing to remain within the law. To do this we need authentic wood samples of each species and the knowledge to identify them. Whilst there is published information on wood anatomy of most of the taxa, this is scattered through the literature, and there are no detailed identification guides to some of the most problematic taxa such as Swietenia in the family Meliaceae.

Reference microscope slides of most CITES-listed timbers and information posters on mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) and ramin (Gonystylus spp.) for display in Customs offices have been prepared. We are producing an identification guide to mahoganies. Swietenia, comprising three species (S. mahagoni, S. macrophylla, S. humilis), is listed on CITES Appendix II, whereas several other genera in the Meliaceae (e.g. Khaya, Entandrophragma, Carapa) are not covered by CITES regulations. These taxa are very similar to Swietenia both to the naked eye and under the microscope. It is therefore imperative that we are able to separate Swietenia from these other similar genera which are not regulated in international trade. The guide will contain drawings and/or photographs of each genus, colour photographs of the wood, photomicrographs of the wood in three planes of section (transverse section (TS),  tangential longitudinal section (TLS) and radial longitudinal section (RLS)), and descriptions, and we completed the manuscript in August 2006. This will contribute to the CITES User’s Guide CITES and Timbers. Further identification work on CITES timbers will continue as required by Customs and other inquirers. Further research will be dependent on outside resources as current funding ceased in August 2006. Options for sources of funding are currently under exploration.

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