RADIOCARBON AND DENDROCHRONOLOGY APPLIED IN A LEGAL DISPUTE: A CASE FROM COLOMBIA

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2015 a dispute arose between an electricity company (EC) and smallholder of a teak plantation when the EC felled 80 trees (without consent of the owner) in a linear transect under a rural power-line-corridor (PLC), fragmenting the teak stand in two portions. The EC stated that there were no planted trees in the area when the PLC was established in 2008. The owner asserted he planted the stand in 2006 so in 2008 the company should have seen the planted trees. We used the bomb radiocarbon (14C) signal of three felled trees and dendrochronological dating of five trees, three felled by the EC and two felled by us in 2016, to do this study to determine the age. We found that the first growth rings were dated to 2005 both in the trees felled by the EC in 2015 and felled by us in 2016, one year before that reported by the owner (2006). This year corresponds to the wood present in the cuttings during the stand’s planting year. These facts are in agreement with the owner’s testimony. The plantation was 10 years old in 2015.