How remote space monitoring technologies help protect forest resources
In Russia, satellites will take control of all forests with commercial logging for the first time in 2024.
Remote monitoring of forest use will be conducted in every second region of the country, Roslesinforg reported. Satellite-based monitoring of forest use will be conducted in every second region of Russia in 2024. For the first time, it will cover all forests where timber is intensively harvested, TASS was informed by Roslesinforg (a forestry institution of Rosleskhoz).
"In 2024, remote monitoring of forest utilisation will be carried out in every second region of the country. Its area will increase by 20% and reach 300 million hectares. This is almost 42% of all forest fund lands covered by forests. Thus, for the first time all forests where intensive commercial timber harvesting is carried out will fall under the scope of space monitoring," the report says.
Satellite monitoring helps to combat black loggers in lesnichestvos with a high share of leased areas where timber is actively harvested, allowing for much faster detection of logging without permission. Thanks to such monitoring, in 2023 the volume of illegally harvested timber in the country decreased by more than 1.5 times compared to 2022 - from 343.5 to 212.2 thousand m3. The number of recorded cases of illegal logging also decreased significantly - from 1,524 to 980. Over the last 5 years, in general, there has been a decrease in the volume of illegally harvested timber per 1,000 ha - from 6.9 to 0.8 m3.
"The most extensive territories, namely more than 106 million hectares, which are under space surveillance are in Siberia, where almost 40% of forests are monitored from space. In the Urals, Far East and North-Western Federal District, between 30 and 50 per cent of territories are under supervision. The share of continuous remote monitoring currently occupies more than 26% of the total area under monitoring. On average, it is growing by 20 million hectares annually.
This year 93 out of 555 lesnichestvos covered by space monitoring in general will be under continuous supervision," said the Director of Roslesinforg, whose words are quoted in the report. One of the stages of development of the system of space tracking of human activity in the forest is the expansion of the zone of continuous remote monitoring. With this technology space images are analysed on a continuous basis, as opposed to conventional remote monitoring, when the imagery is decoded once every 5-7 days. The speed of response is also different - with continuous monitoring, on-site inspections for signs of violations are conducted within 5 days, while with conventional monitoring they are conducted within 30 days.
"With the digital transformation of the forestry industry in Russia, the technology for remote monitoring of forest utilisation is constantly improving. In the near future, the development of technology will make it possible to promptly send violators orders to compensate for the damage caused by illegal logging detected by satellite, just as traffic offenders are now sent notices of fines recorded by traffic cameras".