PROFOR has uploaded a new tool on its website which should be of interest to a variety of exporters, wood association members and specialists: the VERITAS Timber Volume Calculator.

• This product, in conjunction with context-specific volumetric tables, has the potential to be used globally by forest stakeholders to complement verification of timber legality and chain of custody initiatives, by helping to identify red flags or anomalies in timber flow data and accounts.
• Support for the national yield tables and the VERITAS Calculator has directly contributed to the CITES International Convention in Guatemala.  Outputs adapted to national conditions could help other mahogany and Spanish cedar producer countries to comply with CITES.

The Zip files contain Microsoft Excel sheets (for which you need to enbale macros) in English, French and Spanish as well as Help files in all three languages.

Collaborative efforts between PROFOR and Helveta Swiss Intercooperation, with complementary funding from ITTO in 2011, resulted in the development of this effective user friendly application.   

The VERITAS Timber Volume Calculator should help forest authority officials in recording data and calculating timber volumes resulting from the verification of trees by using a conversion factor based a national yield table -- in this case for mahogany in Guatemala.  By entering only the DBH, this calculator is able to determine in real time and with high accuracy the expected volume of a given tree in all export timber grades according to the NHLA (US National Hardwood Lumber Association) classification. 

If you would like more information on how this tool was created, or how it could be adapted to different timber species in different countries, please post questions and comments below or email Natural Resources Specialist Edgardo Maravi at emaravi@worldbank.org. We would love to get your feedback.