NIRS IDENTIFICATION OF SWIETENIA MACROPHYLLA IS ROBUST ACROSS SPECIMENS FROM 27 COUNTRIES

Big-leaf mahogany is the world’s most valuable widely traded tropical timber species and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) has been applied as a tool for discriminating its wood from similar species using multivariate analysis. In this study four look-alike timbers of Swietenia macrophylla (mahogany or big-leaf mahogany), Carapa guianensis (crabwood), Cedrela odorata (cedar or cedro) and Micropholis melinoniana (curupixa) have been successfully discriminated using NIRS and Partial Least Squares for Discriminant Analysis using solid block and milled samples. Species identification models identified 155 samples of S. macrophylla from 27 countries with a correct classification rate higher than 96.8%. For these specimens, the NIRS spectrum variation was more powerful for species identification than for determining provenance of S. macrophylla at the country level.