DENR bar-codes logs in Caraga to stop illegal
logging
By Eric F. Gallego
BUTUAN CITY, Nov. 4 (PIA) -- The Department of
environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Caraga Region is adopting the
technology of bar-coding to easily track the movement of logs from the source
to the wood-processing plants (WPP) to stop illegal logging activities.
A bar-code is an optical machine-readable
representation of date relating to the object to which it is attached.
Bar-codes represented data by varying the widths and spacing of parallel lines.
“We are adopting the bar-code as a strategy to
discourage the transport of illegal logs which is a perennial problem in this
region,” Assistant Secretary Marlo D. Mendoza who is the Regional Executive
Director of the DENR Regional Office 13 said during a meeting with the
provincial and community environment officers of the DENR-13 on Tuesday.
Mendoza went to an interior village of Batocan
in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur where an actual harvesting of trees was taking
place and tested the durability of the rectangle-shaped plastic bar-code
supplied by the Data World Computer Center.
"We are on a pilot stage yet but we expect
the system would be fully operational next year after every system has been
corrected and put in place," Mendoza said. He said the bar-code attached
to a felled tree was found to be durable and scratch-proofed.
As if to emphasize its significance, the first
bar-code that was nailed by Mendoza on a felled tree of acacia mangium species
that will be used in the manufacture of coffins.
“This day
(October 24) is meaningful because the first bar-code was place on a felled
acacia mangium which wood materials will be made into coffins,” Mendoza said.
“This means that we have buried the old system
of corruption connected with illegal logging and we are starting a fresh system
that hopefully would protect our forest from poachers and log smugglers,” he
added.
According to DENR Regional Technical Director
Nonito M.Tamayo, each PENRO and CENRO officers have been equipped with ”
smartphone” tablet computer, a high technology gadget that can scan all
registered data in the bar-codes.
He said the bar-code embedded on each log being
transported should coincide with the data entry in the computer which is
finally checked through scanning at a forest monitoring point before the
logging truck enters a wood-processing plant.
Mendoza said any log without a bar-code ,
therefore, will be considered illegal and the logging truck carrying the logs
will be held outright at the checkpoint.
Mendoza said, “We have required every felled
trees and cut into logs must have a bar-code which will be provided by the DENR
Forest Management Sector.”
All information such as name of tree owner,
location, coordinates, species , length, diameter and the volume of the forest
products are contained in the bar-code and fed into the computer server.
“We can be assured through the bar-code that
illegal movement of logs are minimized and discouraged since every log
transported to wood processing plants are properly accounted and numbered.”
Mendoza said. (NCLM/DENR-13/PIA-Caraga)
