To comply with Materials and Resources Prerequisite: Certified Tropical Wood, all wood in the building must be:

The LEED for Homes (2008) prerequisite "MR Prerequisite 1: Certified Wood" is designed to prevent the use of irresponsibly harvested tropical wood. Compliance is achieved if the project meets one of the following conditions: 1) No tropical wood is used in the project at all. 2) Any tropical wood that is used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Reused or reclaimed wood also meets the prerequisite's intent by avoiding the harvest of new materials. Therefore, for the building to comply, all wood must fall into the categories of being non-tropical, reused, reclaimed, or (if tropical) certified.

B. Tropical wood that is more than 10 years old: This is incorrect. While "reclaimed" or "salvaged" wood is compliant, the standard does not specify an arbitrary age limit like 10 years.
C. Only from the tropical region: This is incorrect and contradicts the prerequisite's intent, which is to discourage or carefully manage the use of tropical wood, not mandate it.
D. From within 200 miles of the building site: This is incorrect. This describes the requirements for a separate credit, MR 2.2, Environmentally Preferable Products – Local Sourcing, not the certified tropical wood prerequisite.

1. U.S. Green Building Council. (2008). LEED for Homes Rating System. Page 71, "MR Prerequisite 1: Certified Wood". The requirement states, "If any tropical wood is used, it must be FSC-certified." This establishes the compliance path for projects using tropical wood and implies that projects using no tropical wood are inherently compliant.

2. University of Florida, Program for Resource Efficient Communities. (n.d.). LEED for Homes v2008 Materials & Resources. In Green Building Learning curriculum. Retrieved from https://buildgreen.ufl.edu/leedv2008mr.html. The courseware outlines for MR Prerequisite 1: "If any tropical wood is used, it must be FSC certified. If no tropical wood is used, the prerequisite is met." This directly supports the logic that using non-tropical wood is a primary compliance path.

3. Kylkilahti, E., & Toppinen, A. (2008). Corporate responsibility and the forest industry: A literature review. Metsätieteen aikakauskirja, (4), 465-482. This peer-reviewed article discusses the role of certification schemes like FSC in promoting sustainable forestry, which is the underlying principle of the LEED prerequisite. It validates the emphasis on FSC certification as the standard for responsible sourcing of wood, including tropical species. (DOI not available for this specific publication, but it is a recognized academic journal in forestry).