CybaCity

Strategic technologies for protecting Tropical Rain Forests

Any logging is bad

Recent evidence related to tropical rain forest logging suggests that any type of logging ends up destroying the forest. Ecologists and economists have often suggested that sustainable forest systems including the gathering of forest produce such as rubber, fruits, nuts and other saleable commodities can be combined with so-called "selective logging".

In practice, it turns our that selective logging represents the removal of an essential part of the local "structural architecture" of the forest and this affects the micro-climate, water balance and the ecosystem. Aerosurvey and remote sensing data can only detect some effects because they observe just the remaining canopy of the trees.

Another consignment of tropical timber. Legal? Illegal? From where? To Where? Who knows? and how?..

Stopping illegal logging

A considerable amount of illegal logging involves the rapid destruction of selected forest areas or indeed, using selective logging in the hope that governments fiscal and inspection officials will not discover the destruction. In Brazil, illegal logging means cutting down trees without appropriate permission provided in the form of a license issued by the National Environmental Agency, IBAMA.

Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade (FLEGT)

Measures have been taken by the European Union to stop illegal logging by preventing its sale in any member state. Agricultural ministers agreed to promote an initiative known as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade (FLEGT). This aims to secure agreements with tropical timber export countries to help them guarantee that imports to the EU are legal & licensed. The EU will ban imports of illegally logged tropical timber. Acccording to the ministers supporting FLEGT, illegal logging destroys the forest ecosystem and microclimate, plants, animals and water balance and traditional ways of life. It also distorts the legitimate timber trade by undercutting prices. The World Bank has estimated that illegal logging costs somewhere of the order of $10-15 billion in lost revenues each year.

Strategic technologies

In early February 2006 the Agricultural Development Foundation (ADF) ran an online conference for forestry and environmental systems experts from the EU and Brazil to review the feasbility of the FLEGT approach. The weakest aspects were identified to be the lack of definition of how timber, or timber products, can be certified in a secure way as having come from a licensed logging site. Put another way how can officials at the point of entry to the European Union authenticate the status of the timber products. This can be solved by adequate traceability records of the so-called chain of custody (CoC). The best known examples of potential systems to achieve this were identified to be AgroRastreabilidade, the Brazilian service of the global AgroTraceability service and the AgroTraceability itself. These two are managed by Navatec.Com but provide a service for agricultural produce only. The third potential solution discussed was EcoTraceability the environmental tracing system run by Hector McNeill & Associates.

All of these systems employ leading edge information technology and run within the Real Net, a global private network managed by Navatec.Com. The Real Net is completely secure, with encrypted voice, text and data communications free from spam and viruses. The Real Net can only be accessed using a Navatec Voyager, the world's most advanced client interface.

Corruption proof

On balance the EcoTraceability organization appeared to be better suited since it already focuses exactly on chains of custody for natural products, such as tropical timber. An essential capability to prevent the export or import of illegally logged timber is to be able to track the progress of legally logged timber from its place of felling to the final consumer. EcoTraceability can provide secure and completely incorruptable traceability records on the chain of custody.

It is imposssible for those involved in the illegal timber business to "forge" such records because they are only accessible from the EcoTraceability service using a registered Navatec Voyager. Navatec Voyagers cannot be copied successfully and no other Internet interfaces including browsers, FTP agents and mailing devices can access the Real Net. Even the barcodes used on the system are proprietary (Seel-Telesis®-ECO based on Seel-Telesis®-STG) and encrypted and Navatec.Com has never published either their bar code standard nor their basis for any of their encryption techniques.

EcoTraceability's robust security makes it a useful tool for supporting agencies and law enforcement bodies concerned with the control of illegal logging.