The Side Event on Xylarium Networking and Wood Identification of the XV World Forestry Congress was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, with a simultaneous online conference, on May 5th, 2022, organized by the Centre for Standardization of Sustainable Forest Management Instruments the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Republic of Indonesia. The theme of the conference was “Promoting Legal Timber Trade through Developing Xylarium Networking and Integrated Wood Identification System”. Dr. Wening Sri Wulandari, the Director of the Centre for Standardization of Sustainable Forest Management Instruments - MoEF, Indonesia, gave opening remarks, and Director of Processing and Marketing of Forest Products – MoEF, Dr. Krisdianto chaired the meeting.

During the side event, there was one keynote lecture and five oral presentations. The keynote speech from Ir. Ary Sudijanto as Director General of Agency for Standardization of Environment and Forestry Instrument - MoEF, Indonesia, stated that “The development of a standardized identification system is very urgent to support the timber sustainability assurance system at the national and international levels”.

Listya Mustika Dewi from BRIN, Dr. Hans Beeckman from Royal Museum for Central Africa, Dr. Ratih Damayanti from BRIN and Xylarium Bogoriense, Alex C. Wiedenhoeft, Ph.D. from United States Department of Agriculture, and Prof. Yafang Yin from Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, presented their research referring to the academic benefits of xylaria, the challenges of databasing xylaria, and the novel development of wood identification methods and technologies. Over 100 representatives took part in this side event. Please contact ratih.damayanti@brin.go.id and dyahayuagust91@gmail.com for more detailed information.