APPROACHES TO SOLVING FORENSIC TASKS CONNECTED WITH TREE SPECIES, THEIR AGE AND LIVING CONDITION DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

It is asserted that the possibilities of forensic wood examination today are limited. The range of issues resolved by experts includes the simplest, usually limited to a group of external features: breed, in the presence of common lines of separation - the identification of the whole by its parts. However, in the investigation of many offenses related to illegal forest use and wood trafficking, this range is much wider. Often it is necessary to determine the year and time of tree felling, its living condition, to establish the geographic location of growth, etc. These and other questions can get quite qualified answers, if the existing objects of wood, which serve as evidence, are subjected to dendrochronological analysis. The article analyzes the practical aspects of forensic research of wood as a source of evidentiary information, detailed solution algorithms for some classification and diagnostic problems of forensic botanical examination using dendrochronological analysis are developed using specific examples.
Attention is drawn to the fact that the proposed methods of the establishment of breed, age and vital status of felled wood are important in investigating offenses related to illegal forestry activities and forest management in the Republic of Belarus, which are usually performed under the conditions of non-obviousness of these  phenomena.

Key words: wood; breed; age; living condition; forensic botanical examination.