Earlier this month, the Advanced Research Lab at IPB University became the first institution in Indonesia to acquire a Direct Analysis in Real Time—Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (DART-TOFMS).
DART-TOFMS technology is being used extensively among enforcement officials in the U.S. and in other countries to provide inexpensive, quick, and reliable identification of timber species. With this new equipment, scientists from IPB University, led by Professor Iskandar Z. Siregar from the Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, will be able to provide analyses on timber species identification to support law enforcement in illegal logging cases.
Scientists from IPB’s Advanced Research Lab will visit the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon later this year to join a training led by forensic chemists from the US Forest Service Wood Identification and Screening Center (WISC) as well as forensic scientists and chemists from the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory (NFWFL).
Professor Mohammad Rafi, from the Department of Chemistry at IPB University, notes: “We are pleased that the Advanced Research Lab has received a DART-TOFMS machine, and we look forward to the training at WISC to better understand how to collect and analyze data using this tool”.
The training will enable IPB scientists to familiarize themselves with how DART-TOFMS technology can be applied as a timber identification tool, as well as to contribute to the development of reference databases. The acquisition of the DART-TOFMS machine and the application of its technology helps strengthen Indonesia’s ability to more effectively enforce its forest laws.
The initiative is led by the World Resources Institute in partnership with IPB University, as part the project “Innovative technologies for fighting illegal logging: Scaling up wood identification and transparency platforms”, funded by Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).
About Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI):
Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) aims at supporting efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+).