The Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica (MINAE), the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), the National Forestry Office (ONF), and Timbeter, recently completed the first round of workshops on the use of the digital technology for forestry management, developed by Timbeter, aimed to companies and organizations from the forestry clusters of North Huetar Region and Guanacaste.
These activities are part of the project “Implementing Timbeter’s technology for the efficient forestry management in Costa Rica”. The project is possible thanks to the alliance between the government of Costa Rica and the Estonian government, aiming to transfer knowledge in terms of digitization and implementation of digital government solutions.
Close to 30 people participated in the four Webinars that took place in September, among representatives of forestry companies, cooperatives, Non Governmental Organizations, Forestry Regents, SINAC officials, and other organizations.
The participants of the workshops have already started taking digital measurements with Timbeter’s mobile solutions, even though some of them have not been able to travel to the field due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The participants, especially the representatives of forestry companies, expressed their interest in continuing making measurements towards the start of the summer, approximately between December and April, which is the highest period of operations in the country.
During the closing session of the Webinars, the participants gave their feedback, and asked for the local formula Pulgada Maderera Tica (PMT) to be included in the list of supported formulas in Timbeter. The PMT is being integrated by Timbeter’s development team and will be ready in the upcoming weeks.
Participants expressed they see the potential of the use of Timbeter’s solutions in their operations, both to improve work safety, avoiding possible accidents during the measurement process, and also to significantly reduce time in the measurement process compared to the way it is done currently, bringing efficiency to the company’s processes.
Some of the functionalities that most called the attention of the participants were the measurement of the volume, measurement in trucks, Timbeter Container for log exporters, and the creation of digital inventories and reports.
During the second phase of the project, companies and organizations involved in the forestry sector from all over Costa Rica will be invited to participate, and this next step will start in the upcoming weeks.
You can contact the Costa Rican National Center for Geoenvironmental Information (CENIGA in Spanish) if you are interested in participating in the next stages of the project. Send a message to ceniga@minae.go.cr
