The SUMAL application (Wooden Material Tracking System) has been updated so that the loading of accompanying notices onto the server can only be done within the perimeter of the warehouse, eliminating the possibility for transporters to load them en route, only when they were stopped for inspection, announced the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Diana Buzoianu, in a post published on her social media page on Friday.

„Until now, timber transporters would go to warehouses, leave with the timber from the warehouses and issue the SUMAL notice for timber transport. But those who wanted to break the law, instead of uploading this issued notice further to the server, would turn off the internet on their phones and drive with the truck full of timber, hoping to reach their destination without anyone stopping them, so that they wouldn’t use that notice. And they would do this for so many trips until someone stopped them, at which point they would quickly open the internet and upload the issued notice to the server to make it appear that they had complied with the law. „I had a discussion at the ministry about this particular method of theft with Bodnar Daniel and his colleagues from the Forest Guard Association, whom I thank for the information and for the passion they put into stopping criminals and protecting our forests (…) We updated the SUMAL application, so that the loading of the accompanying notices on the server can only be done within the perimeter of the warehouse, eliminating the possibility for carriers to load them en route, only when they were stopped for inspection,” Buzoianu wrote on Facebook.

According to the data presented by the Minister of the Environment, in the last six months analyzed, almost 7,000 notices were recorded for which there was a difference of more than half an hour between the time the notice was issued and the time it was uploaded to the server.

„We are already working on creating the framework for the development of SUMAL 3.0, a system that will integrate Artificial Intelligence algorithms to automatically detect suspicious behaviors in economic activities related to forestry. This means that the system will issue alerts in real time, analyze patterns and issue alerts where risks are identified. We will be able to intervene early, thus protecting the country’s forests and natural resources,” the head of the Environment Department emphasized.

Version 2.0 of the SUMAL application was put into operation on January 31, 2021, with Government Decision 497/2020 being the regulatory act regulating its operation.

The platform provides information on the valuation acts (APV), the locations from where timber transports are loaded and the information related to these points. APV come from tree markings that are carried out throughout the year using mobile devices. At the time of marking, the GPS coordinates of the trees proposed for exploitation are also collected.AGERPRES