Illegal logging could be virtually eliminated by giving every individual tree in a forest its own digital identity.
April 26, 2026
Original Paper
From Volume to Identity: A Structural Framework to Eliminate Illegal Timber Laundering Through Tree-Level Traceability
SSRN · 6615418
The Takeaway
The current system for tracking timber relies on measuring the total volume of wood, which makes it easy for criminals to mix illegal logs with legal ones. This new proposal uses georeferencing to identify every single tree as a unique asset before it is ever cut down. By tracking trees individually instead of in bulk, the entire supply chain becomes transparent and impossible to fake. This shift in governance would treat forests like a library of individual books rather than a giant pile of paper. It provides a concrete way to stop the laundering of illegal wood into the global market.
From the abstract
This study examines the structural limitations of volume-based forest governance systems in regulating timber production and commercialization. While these systems rely on comprehensive forest inventories and regulatory oversight, they inherently generate discrepancies between authorized and physically extracted volumes, enabling the creation of surplus credits that can legitimize illegally sourced timber. Drawing on field-based experience in the Brazilian Amazon, this paper identifies a fundame