Georgia moves to improve sustainable forestry

The project was officially launched at seminar in Tblisi on April 22. The event brought together a wide range of Georgian, and international environmental stakeholders who were introduced to the functionalities of the Timbeter solutions, and its potential to contribute into Georgian ongoing forestry reform. 

During the next steps of the project Timbeter solutions will be adapted for Georgian users and piloted by them - the results of the pilot will be used to further improve Timbeter for Georgian needs.

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is funding the project to bring Timbeter’s technology to Georgia, and integrate the technology with the digital solutions developed by the government to oversight the forestry sector, facilitate sustainable forest management, and fight illegal logging in the country. 

The government of Georgia, through its Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, 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. Timbeter as a digital solution will be used to simplify the data exchange between the government and companies. The target is to bring more efficiency and transparency to the process to ensure sustainable forest management and improve accountability of timber flow.

“We strongly believe that Estonian experiences and technological solutions in the field of sustainable forest management could make a valuable contribution into Georgian efforts to make the forestry and timber production more sustainable, effective and safe,” said Riina Kaljurand, the Estonian ambassador to Georgia.

“Georgia has been the priority country of the Estonian development co-operation for many years and this particular project constitutes a very first Estonian Public Private Partnership initiative in Georgia“.

“Timbeter will help our efforts in the improvement of the data on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forests, protection of biological diversity and effective use of the economic potential of forests,” said deputy minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Iuri Nozadze.

“It is important for us to introduce and use modern technologies in the forestry sector. The Estonian AI-based timber measurement solution should be in line with the existing Forest Information and Monitoring System (FIMS), which will help improve timber movement and volume accountability, as well as to assist forest management and supervision bodies in conducting effective state control over forest use and forest protection”, said the deputy minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Nino Tandilashvili.

“Our goal is to make sure that forests are managed sustainably,” added Anna-Greta Tsahkna, CEO of Timbeter. “Digital solutions like Timbeter help companies to increase safety and efficiency and also easily provide needed data for the government that will help to fight the illegal logging. We hope to provide reliable data for sustainable management of Georgian forests.”