Information integration was supported by ACTO, through the Bioamazon Project
Author: Forest Products Laboratory (LPF)
The Forest Products Laboratory (LPF) of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), created almost 50 years ago, works in the area of wood technology and other forest products, generating, disseminating and transferring knowledge to contribute to sustainable development in the forest sector. In this sense, the LPF has been working intensively in the development of technologies to assist the forest sector control and inspection actions, among them the Electronic Key, which is an important taxonomic identification tool for tree species traded in Brazil.
The previous version of the Electronic Key, developed in the DELTA platform (recently discontinued), had about 150 species registered and was already used by different control agencies in their inspection activities.
The organization of this database arose from the need to have a tool for the recognition of timber species commonly traded in Brazil. It consists of an interactive identification system by means of general, macroscopic characters, chemical and physical tests of the woods. In addition to this data, there is also relevant information regarding conservation and commercialization, geographic distribution, biome, and commercial and scientific nomenclature data.
The new version, now made available by LPF, was implemented in the LUCID platform and has a total of 275 species registered, including all timber species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) found in Brazil and provides the information field “Conservation Status”, which gathers data about the lists of threatened species and informs whether the species consulted is found in any CITES appendix, improving the accuracy and reliability of the control and inspection procedures, avoiding fraud, where the lack of taxonomic knowledge often opens up gaps for the illegal commercialization of species included in the CITES appendices.
The macroscopic descriptions of 275 species are presented, subordinated to 35 botanical families, 272 of which are native to Brazil and, for the most part, of recognized commercial value or, at least, potential. The program is easy to use, allowing the user to identify a species using only a penknife to make the cut and a 10x magnifying glass to observe the characteristics.
With this, the LPF hopes to contribute to the dissemination of information and the accurate determination of the species present in forestry and timber trade in Brazil and, also, in the world. This key is the result of years of service in training identifiers and in wood identification in Brazil.
The new Electronic Key is available for download on the LPF Internet Portal (https://lpf.florestal.gov.br/pt-br/chave-interativa-de-identificacao) in its offline version and can be used on any Windows computer. An online version of the key (without the need to download it) will also be available, which can be accessed from any device with Internet access such as computers, tablets or smartphones through the LUCID portal (https://www.lucidcentral.org/).
This new tool is the result of a partnership between LPF and the Brazilian Federal Police, which provided a license of the LUCID platform to build the key.
ACTO’s Bioamazon Project, implemented with funding from German cooperation through KfW, collaborated to this action with a contribution of approximately USD 18,000.
The new version of the Electronic Key will also interoperate with the Amazon Regional Observatory (ARO) of ACTO.
Published in Bioamazon Bulletin, issue 09, May-June 2021.