Timbeter and the government of Costa Rica kicked-off a project with the goal to support the digitization of forest management, and increase competitiveness of the local forestry sector.

The Estonian Environmental Investment Center (KIK in Estonian) is funding the project to bring Timbeter’s technology to Costa Rica, and integrate their technology with the digital solutions developed by the government of the Central American nation to oversight the forestry sector, facilitate sustainable forest management, and fight illegal logging in the country.

The government of Costa Rica, through their Ministry of Environment and Energy, will explore opportunities to integrate Timbeter’s Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and cloud technology to support their efforts and investments in monitoring and controlling the forestry sector. By simplifying data exchange between the government and companies, the target is to reduce administrative burden and bring more efficiency and transparency to sustainable forest management.

In a call to kickstart the project, the Vice Minister of the Environment and Energy, Pamela Castillo, said that the project comes in an opportune time since Costa Rica is planning to reactivate its economy after the COVID-19 emergency by promoting goods and services that are nature based. Costa Rica is known for its efforts on sustainable natural resources management and as a green pioneer in a region of the world that is highly vulnerable to climate change. Timbeter will help to facilitate the data exchange between the companies and government, reduce administrative burden of companies and increase their operational efficiency.

“The timber industry has an important role in providing renewable material and fighting illegal logging”, Anna-Greta Tsahkna, CEO of Timbeter said. “We need to make sure that forests are managed sustainably. Digital solutions like Timbeter help companies to be more efficient and transparent and also easily provide needed data for the government that will help to fight the illegal logging.  And now, we are happy that we can work together with the Costa Rica government and the forestry private sector in the country”.

Rafael Monge Vargas, Director of the National Center of Geoenvironmental Information and local counterpart of the project in Costa Rica, highlighted that “with this cooperation we aim to strengthen the Costa Rican Forest Resources Information System (SIREFOR), through the incorporation of state of the art digital tools, that facilitate the work carried out by the Costa Rican authorities for the control and monitoring of forest harvesting activities”.

Timbeter has already brought important results in forestry operations, creating a safer working environment for collaborators, and reducing the use of hazardous materials like paint. But Timbeter also brings affordable digital transformation to medium and smaller companies and private forest owners, and creates conditions for more fair and transparent trade transactions, enabling local farmers, and communities that depend on the forest for their livelihood to get better access to the market, and the right price for their legally sourced timber.

Timbeter is an Estonian startup that has built the world’s largest database of photometric measurements of roundwood, which allows real-time tracking of timber assets down to individual shipments and piles throughout the forestry value chain. Timbeter is working with state forests in Poland and the Netherlands, and other countries of the world, and its clients include some of the largest companies in the sector such as CMPC (Chile), International Paper (Brazil), Faber-Castell (Brazil), Siam Forestry Group (Thailand), Mekong Timber Plantations (Laos), Port Blakely (USA), SEQH (Australia)  and many others.

Timbeter’s technology brings transparency to the forestry sector through the use of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, GPS and cloud computing. Through geotagging, it is possible to know the origin of the measurements done through Timbeter’s solutions, the information is available throughout the supply chain.

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Carlos Fonseca
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