Exchanging experiences on how the use of Artificial Intelligence can contribute to sustainable and responsible management in forestry operations, was the main objective of a field trip organized by the project “Implementing Timbeter’s technology for the efficient forestry management in Costa Rica”.
The activity was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica (MINAE), the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), the National Forestry Office (ONF), and Timbeter, and took place with the support of the company Bosques Selectos LWO S.A., participant of the project.
The field trip was hosted by Bosques Selectos LWO S.A., a sustainable and socially responsible forestry company, that supplies the local and international market with wood species like Gmelina and Teak, among others.
Representatives of the company explained to participants how they use Timbeter for measuring logs in the field, trucks, sawmill and containers; how they use the digital data for controlling the volumes of wood along the production chain; how they document the chain of custody of the wood with the images; prevention of work-related accidents; and how the technology brings efficiency to the operations.
Representatives of academic institutions, forestry organizations, companies, and independent forestry professionals, had the opportunity to take part in practical activities with different functionalities of the technology, among them, measuring with the formula Pulgada Maderera Tica, a local formula, as well as Hoppus, among others.
“We noticed a great enthusiasm in the use of the technology during the activity, and how it can support the daily work directly”, said Rafael Monge, Director of the Costa Rican National Center for Geoenvironmental Information (CENIGA in Spanish).
Sebastian Ugalde, Silviculture, Industry and Commerce Manager at ONF, who facilitated the field practice activities, together with representatives of Bosques Selectos LWO S.A., said that with this and future activities of the project “we expect that the Costa Rican forestry sector takes advantage of new technologies that bring benefits to the efficient and sustainable management of the sector, bringing transparency to buyers as well as producers, and the rest of the stakeholders of the wood supply chain”.
