DENR to use barcodes to fight illegal logging

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to use barcodes next year to track logs from their source to the wood processing plants in a bid to stop illegal logging.

“We are adopting the barcode as a strategy to discourage the transport of illegal logs, which has been considered a perennial problem in this region,” said Assistant Secretary Marlo Mendoza, DENR-Region 13 executive director, during a meeting with the provincial and community environment officers in the region recently.

Mendoza went to the village of Batocan in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur, where logs were being harvested, to test the durability of plastic barcodes 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,” he said.

Mendoza said the barcode attached to a felled Acacia mangium tree was found to be durable and scratchproof. He said the first barcode he had attached was to a tree whose wood would be used for coffins.

“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 forests from poachers and log smugglers,” he said.

Mendoza had responded to the challenge raised by wood-processing association Big-Bold, based in Butuan City, and local government officials in Region 13 to revive the dying wood industry.

DENR Forest Management Services regional technical director Nonito Tamayo said each provincial and community environment officer has been equipped with a smartphone tablet computer.

The barcode attached to each log transported by a log trader should match the data entered in the smartphone before the log can be brought to a wood processing plant.

Mendoza said any log without a barcode shall be considered illegal and the truck carrying the logs shall be held at the checkpoint.

The barcode should contain information on the name of the tree owner, location, species, length, diameter and the volume of the forest product.

“We can be given assurance through the barcode that illegal movement of logs is minimized and discouraged since every log transported to wood processing plants are properly accounted for and numbered,” Mendoza said.