Bogor, October 15, 2024 – Today, seven forestry experts from the Sarawak Forestry Department, Malaysia, visited Xylarium Bogoriense located at the Sustainable Forest Management Instrumentation Standardization Center (PuSTARhut) Campus in Bogor. The visit aimed to explore wood anatomy and wood identification technologies, marking an important moment in strengthening collaboration between Malaysia and Indonesia. The Research and Development Division of the Sarawak Forestry Department manages its xylarium with no fewer than 16,000 wood samples. Through this visit, they hoped to learn best practices from Indonesia in managing a xylarium.
A xylarium is essentially a wood library—a specialized collection that stores various wood specimens. Xylarium Bogoriense is managed by PuSTARhut under the Environmental and Forestry Instrumentation Standardization Agency.
Wening Sri Wulandari, Head of PuSTARhut, personally welcomed the visit.
“Welcome to Xylarium Bogoriense, the largest xylarium in the world, established in 1915, with over 200,000 authentic wood specimens—not only wood but also rattan, bamboo, and petrified wood,” said Wening.
She further explained that Xylarium Bogoriense now serves as a reference for data and information used in developing standards and providing wood identification testing services. “PuSTARhut is tasked with formulating forest management standards. The availability of data and information in this xylarium is a crucial reference in the development of standards, especially for timber forest product management,” Wening added.
Runi Sywesta Pungga, the team leader from Sarawak, shared her impressions of the visit. “It’s a rare and valuable opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with Xylarium Bogoriense,” she said. Runi mentioned that Central Sarawak is currently developing an artificial intelligence-based wood identification system called the Sarawak Wood Identification System (SWIDS), similar to Indonesia’s AIKO (Automated Wood Identification Tool).
SWIDS, however, still faces implementation challenges. “Our main issue is obtaining perfect wood samples to generate good-quality images for data input,” said Teng Xin Yao, a member of the Sarawak Forestry Department’s Research and Development Division who joined the visit.
Jorgy, the curator and lab analyst of the xylarium, provided an overview of the facility. “Xylarium Bogoriense stores uniquely shaped trapezoidal specimens, designed to make identification easier and data more accurate. In addition to trapezoids, we also keep block-shaped samples, micro slides, and wood disks,” Jorgy explained.
In addition to discussions and knowledge exchange, the delegates had the opportunity to observe various wood specimens and wood products housed in Xylarium Bogoriense. They were particularly impressed with the batik collection inspired by wood anatomy structures displayed in the lobby.
The visit concluded with a group photo. It is hoped that this visit will yield meaningful benefits in enhancing forest management knowledge and biodiversity conservation in both countries. ***