Uganda has opened a forensics laboratory at Entebbe that turns seized timber into court-admissible DNA evidence, expanding a 2019 pilot into a national timber-crime hub as forest cover has halved from 24 per cent in 1990 to roughly 13 per cent in 2025.
That is according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which formally inaugurated the Uganda Wildlife Forensics and Timber Laboratory at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC) alongside the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network, and Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment.
European Union funding, supported by Denmark, has widened the laboratory’s mandate beyond wild fauna to include protected Ugandan timber species, with DNA profiling, species identification, and chain-of-custody analysis extending to forest crime investigations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
DNA barcoding anchors the timber casework, with chloroplast markers, including rbcL, matK, and the trnL intron, used to discriminate closely related African hardwoods that conventional anatomy-based microscopy can identify only to the genus level. The technique extends to CITES Appendix II species traded out of Uganda, such as Afzelia africana, Khaya anthotheca, Prunus africana, and Pterocarpus, with Afzelia driving protected-area logging losses since Uganda’s 2017 government ban on its harvest and export failed to slow shipments to Asia.
Wood Central understands that the relocation to UWEC’s National Wildlife Hospital and Quarantine Centre has seen the facility refurbished against international forensic quality standards, with UNODC, TRACE, the UWA, and the Ministry of Water and Environment supplying specialised equipment, advanced training, mentoring, and standard operating procedures across both wildlife and timber methods.
Africa Coordinator Giovanni Broussard, speaking for the UNODC Global Programme on Crimes that Affect the Environment, said wildlife and timber trafficking were driven by transnational organised crime networks operating across borders, with stronger forensic capacity closing gaps that had stalled past prosecutions.
EU Ambassador Jan Sadek said the laboratory was an investment in both science and the rule of law. “This laboratory represents a powerful investment in science, justice, and sustainability. By supporting forensic capacity, the European Union is helping Uganda protect its forests and wildlife, safeguard local livelihoods, and uphold the rule of law against environmental crime,” Sadek said.
The Entebbe laboratory was first set up as a UNODC–TRACE pilot in 2019 with UWA, and has since assisted in hundreds of investigations and prosecutions linked to the illegal wildlife trade across Uganda. Its new timber mandate folds CITES-listed Ugandan tree species into the same DNA-based casework pipeline that previously focused on protected fauna.
Casework has been handled by the Uganda Wildlife Authority since the pilot phase, with Executive Director James Musinguzi saying the facility has changed how rangers, investigators, and prosecutors build cases against wildlife crime. “This laboratory has transformed how we investigate and prosecute wildlife crime. It provides our rangers, investigators and prosecutors with credible evidence that stands up in court and delivers real consequences for offenders,” Musinguzi said.
Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu, whose bench hears the resulting prosecutions, said the laboratory had become a critical part of the criminal justice system. “The forensic laboratory is critical to the criminal justice system, significantly enhancing the court’s ability to hold offenders accountable by providing objective, scientifically validated evidence and to protect Uganda’s natural heritage for future generations,” Kamasanyu said.
The Entebbe expansion comes as global timber buyers face tightening due diligence rules, with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requiring importers to prove their supply chains carry no illegally sourced wood, as Wood Central reported, and Africa-sourced fibre under sharper EU compliance scrutiny than ever before.
Funded by the European Union through the European Union–Uganda Forest Partnership, the Entebbe laboratory joins the African Wildlife Forensics Network, set up by UNODC and TRACE in 2015, which has since extended forensic capacity across 15 African countries.
