Societal Impact Statement: Forest products are the most used inedible renewable resource, but supplies are finite. It is difficult to know which tree species are in wood products or where they come from. Scientific evidence is needed to support or refute origin and species claims in traded products. We describe the building of a geo‐referenced wood reference collection (xylarium) supported by herbarium voucher specimens. The WorldForest ID program, hereinafter referred to as WFID (www.worldforestid.org), is embarking on large‐scale field collections of wood samples suitable for science‐based authentication technologies. By coordinating with regulatory and enforcement authorities in both producer and consumer countries the WFID xylarium is legally robust and commercially relevant.Summary: We describe a program called WorldForestID which is being developed to monitor and support authentication and compliance in international trade of timber products. The program is being run by a consortium of government and non‐government organizations: US Forest Service International Programs (USFS IP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Agroisolab, and World Resources Institute (WRI). Initial funding has come from the US Department of State, USFS IP, US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Forest Stewardship Council, and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The aim is to build a comprehensive collection of internationally traded timber species. The collection is used as reference material to validate forest products. Although there are a large number of xylaria (wood collections, Index Xylariorum IV) around the world, many of the specimens do not provide geo‐locations suitable as reference material for pinpointing provenance, many lack‐associated herbarium vouchers and some are misidentified. The samples being collected in this program address these issues and include bark, sapwood, and heartwood, ensuring that the material collected is suitable for current and future scientific analysis. We describe the process of collection and validation from field to laboratory and the advantages and disadvantages of the main techniques used to ascertain/verify identity and provenance. Ultimately, we envisage the day that scientific methods will be used routinely and successfully by timber traders, manufacturers, retailers, and law enforcement to accept or reject identity and provenance claims on internationally traded timber and forest products and, where necessary, to support prosecutions when laws such as EU Timber Regulations, Lacey Act and CITES are infringed.

Background and Objectives: The origin of traded timber is one of the main questions in the enforcement of regulations to combat the illegal timber trade. Substantial efforts are still needed to develop techniques that can determine the exact geographical provenance of timber and this is vital to counteract the destructive effects of illegal logging, ranging from economical loss to habitat destruction. The potential of chemical fingerprints from pith-to-bark growth rings for individual comparison and geographical provenance determination is explored. Materials and Methods: A wood sliver was sampled per growth ring from four stem disks from four individuals of Pericopsis elata (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and from 14 stem disks from 14 individuals of Terminalia superba (Côte d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of the Congo). Chemical fingerprints were obtained by analyzing these wood slivers with Direct Analysis in Real Time Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (DART TOFMS). Results: Individual distinction for both species was achieved but the accuracy was dependent on the dataset size and number of individuals included. As this is still experimental, we can only speak of individual comparison and not individual distinction at this point. The prediction accuracy for the country of origin increases with increasing sample number and a random sample can be placed in the correct country. When a complete disk is removed from the training dataset, its rings (samples) are correctly attributed to the country with an accuracy ranging from 43% to 100%. Relative abundances of ions appear to contribute more to differentiation compared to frequency differences. Conclusions: DART TOFMS shows potential for geographical provenancing but is still experimental for individual distinction; more research is needed to make this an established method. Sampling campaigns should focus on sampling tree cores from pith-to-bark, paving the way towards a chemical fingerprint database for species provenance.