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Timbeter’s technology, based on artificial intelligence, seeks to be part of the certification of the legality of wood in Costa Rica.
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The project has been in development since 2020 and is financed by the Estonian Environmental Investment Center (KIK in Estonian).
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Timbeter representatives were in Costa Rica talking with their national counterparts and made a field trip to the North Zone.
The Government of Costa Rica and the technology company Timbeter are carrying out a pilot project, with the aim of supporting the digitalization of wood management in the country and increasing the competitiveness of the local forestry sector. The project is part of a cooperation between the Government of Costa Rica and the Government of Estonia, which is executed, from the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica (MINAE), by the National Center for Geoenvironmental Information (CENIGA) and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), with the support of the National Forestry Office (ONF) and the College of Agricultural Engineers (CIAgro).
Meeting with MINAE authorities, February 7th, 2022.
This project is funded by the Estonian Environmental Investment Center. Its implementation began in 2020.
From February 1st to 8th, 2022, Timbeter’s CEO Anna-Greta Tsahkna and CTO Martin Kambla visited Costa Rica for a series of meetings and field visits, with the aim to understand how processes and existing systems for forest management could be improved through digitization and to build up a roadmap for scaling up the project.
The activities of the visit included meetings at MINAE, SINAC, CIAGRO and ONF, a field visit to the North Zone, where the companies Bosques Selectos and Holystone Group were visited. In addition, virtual meetings were held with representatives of PROCOMER, in charge of the VUI (Single Window for Investment) project, and with the advice of a representative of the private sector.
Costa-Rica’s Vice-Minister of Environment, Franklin Paniagua, met with the representatives of Timbeter to discuss the progress and key findings from the pilot project.
In this regard, Panigua expressed the importance of promoting the economic development of the forestry sector.
“Our goal is to obtain clear benefits from the use of technology for efficient and sustainable management of the sector. It is important to guarantee transparency and traceability of management, in order to increase the competitiveness of companies that market and export wood in the country”, detailed.
From his part, Rafael Monge Vargas, Director of the National Center for Geoenvironmental Information, from MINAE, which has the function of being the local counterpart of the project in Costa Rica, highlighted that, “The pilot project aims to digitize and automate processes related to harvesting and reporting to streamline operations and use digital data for monitoring”.
Meeting with the National Forestry Office, February 4th, 2022.
In this regard, Sebastián Ugalde, Manager of Forestry, Industry and Commerce of the National Forestry Office, indicated that there are opportunities for the use of this innovative technology in forestry operations, and even as part of the national certification scheme for the legality of wood that the ONF is developing, which seeks to generate a differentiation for the legal wood that is traded in compliance with the regulations in the country.
“I think it is very important that this pilot project be carried out through a joint effort between the public and private sectors to offer better competitive conditions for the forestry sector, as well as market opportunities for both buyers and producers. , and the rest of the stakeholders in the wood supply chain”, he added.
Anna-Greta Tsahkna, CEO of Timbeter, concluded at the end of the visit: “The digital transformation of the sector can only take place within the framework of an alliance between the public and private sectors, so it is important to include the private actors early in the process and help them digitize their operations so they can reap the benefits of digitization and measuring using artificial intelligence, rather than traditional methods.”
