AI-powered tools are significantly enhancing efforts to combat illegal timber trade in Vietnam, a country crucial to the global timber processing industry and a transit hub for wood from Africa's threatened forests. This innovative tool called the Xylorix Enforcer developed by Agritix and with close support of TRAFFIC with its decades of field experience and enforcement insight, together deployed the tools to meet the practical needs of officers not only in Viet Nam, but other countries such as Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, dramatically reduces the time needed to identify timber species from hours to minutes.

Xylorix Enforcer helps enforcement agencies and forest officers to quickly identify timber species accurately in the field just with the use of a smartphone and a macro lens. This speed increase is vital for frontline officers, who previously relied on time-consuming methods like paperwork or field guides to distinguish between legal and protected wood, often leading to missed detections in a trade estimated to be worth $10-15 billion annually.

In May and June 2025, TRAFFIC provided training to 75 frontline officers across three Vietnamese provinces, enabling them to quickly identify high-commercial-value timber species. The tool was tested on 15 high-risk species, including Siamese rosewood, Burmese rosewood, and Tali.