As the Christmas holidays approach, do we ever stop to think about how many coniferous trees are illegally cut down, and how to prevent it? An effective solution to this problem has been the implementation of modern automated GPS monitoring systems for managing and overseeing forestry operations.

According to Andrii Kovalyk, CEO of Ukrainian Geoinformation Systems LLC, in recent years, new automated control and management systems have been introduced in forestry enterprises of the Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Sumy regions.

'In order to preserve forest resources, ensure proper protection, and create favorable conditions for forestry operations, we developed a unique system for monitoring them. In particular, GPS trackers were installed on vehicles transporting timber to monitor their operations. This enables forestry managers to track the movements of employees and company vehicles, see how many vehicles are currently used for timber transport, and control the efficiency of fuel usage, among other functions,' explained Andrii Kovalyk.

The GPS monitoring and control system for forestry vehicles performs the following functions: real-time tracking, accurate vehicle location display, route history generation for any time period, identification of stopping points, speed control, driver and vehicle identification, daily email reports, fuel usage tracking (refueling and draining), and support for integrating various types of transport,' added Andrii Kovalyk.

Additionally, in all forestry enterprises where the automated system has been implemented, Ukrainian Geoinformation Systems LLC helped introduce employee monitoring tools for forest rangers.

'This is the same GPS tracker used for service vehicles, but in the form of key fobs or mobile apps carried by forest rangers. This way, forestry offices can not only track vehicle movements but also monitor where employees are walking, view forest boundaries divided into grid squares, and understand whether those areas are being inspected by staff.'

Moreover, employee management and monitoring is supported through cartographic grids that allow for workforce distribution across forestry areas, track entry and exit times, time spent in specific areas, calculate distances traveled, and ultimately ensure efficient management of forestry staff,' added Andrii Kovalyk.

It’s worth noting that the automated forestry control and management system can generate various reports for any time range based on data such as vehicle movements, fuel usage, geofence reports, sensor data, and other industry-specific information.