ICT Update's List: Forestry

The purpose of this site is to provide background information on the key issues in the debate around illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber, together with news stories, information on events, key documents and links to other relevant websites.

Now, forestry engineer Paulo Borges has developed a microchip system where chips are attached to a trees base, and data concerning that tree can be retrieved with a hand-held device.

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) says it is implementing the Remote Sensing and Bar-Coding system into its existing log tracking programme in its promotion of sustainable forestry development. The GFC project is funded by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) at a cost of more than $100M, a press release from the Government Information Agency said.

TECS was launched in April last year by Spring to provide technology start-ups and enterprising public sector researchers with early-stage funding support. It aims to provide $75 million in grants to about 100 projects in five years. Proposals should come from areas such as electronics, photonics and device technologies, and biomedical sciences. This year, a new sector - information and communications technology (ICT) - was added, and more than half the proposal submissions were related to ICT. Biotech firm Double Helix Tracking Technologies' project was one of the winners. It aims to identify the geographical origin of wood products by using the DNA of trees.

WWF-India and ITC have joined hands to promote sustainable forest management practices. Since ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers
Division (ITC PSPD) draws from the corporate commitment to the triple bottom line, and continuously works towards becoming the benchmark for sustainable practices in the paper industry in all areas of its operations, the company's PSPD has signed the agreement of membership with WWF GFTN.

The Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia (FDPM) recently completed a trial of timber tracking and forest management using radio frequency identification. The nation is one of the largest exporters of wood resources in the world, with timber and timber products contributing RM22.5 billion (US$6.3 billion) of exports in 2008.

Helveta Ltd., the leading provider of asset management and supply chain monitoring technology for the forest sector, has announced an exclusive 5 year supply agreement with Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), to supply the Ministry of Environment, Conservation of Nature and Tourism (MECNT) for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the software technology platform and support services to manage the entire supply chain of wood and wood products in the largest tropical forest in Africa.

Helveta announced today that it is to accelerate the development and deployment of the technology after closing a £1m funding round involving Carbon Trust Investments, Oxford Capital Partners, Albion Venture and Success Europe.

The company's software uses a combination of satellite technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, barcode, and asset tracking to ensure timber has not been sourced from illegal plantations.

Oxford-based Helveta has developed a system that tracks timber through its complex supply chain and enables its source to be verified in a move to help wipe out the global illegal timber trade.

Ghana is to benefit from software that will help address illegal logging. The Carbon Trust Investments in partnership with Oxford Capital Partners, Albion Ventures and Success Europe, has reportedly invested in the UK-based timber tracing technology company, Helveta, for the development of technology to aid efforts to tackle illegal logging.

The Brazilian Forest Service has launched a monitoring system for forest concessions in Brazil. Concessions areas will be monitored jointly by the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), both federal government agencies. The Forest Service has also developed a system to trace log transportation from the forest to the first log-processing site.

A new wood tracking system to protect and support Cameroon's timber industry has been unveiled. A UK based company Helveta developed the system to help check illegal logging as well as ensure continuous export to the EU.

Forest Connect partner countries include Burkina Faso, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Lao PDR, Mozambique and Nepal. Find news about Small and Medium Forest Enterprises (SMFEs) in developing countries, tools and tactics that have worked to improve the prospects for SMFEs, recent documents that might be useful, and upcoming jobs, meetings or training events.

UNDP Barbados and OECS has recently entered a two-and-a-half year agreement with the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) to partner with its CARUTA project, which it is implementing in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat with co-funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The partnership is intended to sensitise key stakeholders, such as community resource users and decision-makers to issues related to climate risk management in the context of conservation and sustainable use of forestry resources. It will also provide training of natural resource users in communities. This collaboration is expected to stimulate increased efforts at all levels on mainstreaming climate change into policies and practice relating to poverty reduction and natural resource management and making climate change adaptation options and tools more accessible at the grassroots level.

CARUTA is a coordinated response of institutional delivery of technical assistance in agriculture and integrated rural development to selected CARICOM/OECS Member States. The objective is to strengthen national and sub-regional capacity to alleviate current levels of rural poverty. CARUTA addresses rural poverty in all its forms: access and land use, gender equality and equity, sustainable livelihoods and environment and natural resources management.

Certification networks could be more effective at containing negative social and environmental impacts if they borrowed from community-based natural resource management approaches. On the development of a network for forest certification and monitoring th

Decentralised forest management in Tanzania - Research summary

CARPE supports a large-scale tropical forest landscape management planning process as part of its overall objective to slow the rate of tropical forest and biodiversity loss in Central Africa. This site is being made available to CARPE partners, stakehold

the International Year of Forests, 2011 (Forests 2011) Web site, a global platform to celebrate people’s action to sustainably manage the world’s forests. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awar

Field-Map est une technologie utilisée pour la cartographie, collecte et le traitement des données de terrain. Il est principalement utilisé pour la cartographie des écosystèmes forestiers en temps réel et la collecte des données lors des examens sur le t

The main goal of the MICCA project, which started in 2010, is to support efforts to mitigate climate change through agriculture in developing countries and move towards carbon friendly agricultural practices. The project has 5 components: better knowledge