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New computerized tracking system to curb illegal logging

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Illegal logging has been a major concern because it’s not just a thriving black business but also a major contributor to climate change. Thanks to a new global computerized system that tracks wood, things may soon change for better.

Under the system which was recently tested in Indonesia, a tree set for legal felling would be given a unique barcode identifying its type and location, which it would carry all though the process from forest to furniture.

This would also help customers get sustainable product, said a Reuters report.

Scott Poynton of the Tropical Forest Trust said,

When the barcode is scanned, a server in London verifies the information. If the tree has suddenly come up as a different type or if the barcode had been replicated and there are suddenly lots of the same tree, the alarm rings.

Our people go back to the factory owner and tell him he has been rumbled. Because buyers in Europe and the United States are now increasingly demanding legal, sustainably logged products, he will quickly cooperate.

According to a World Bank estimate, illegal logging costs a producer country between $10 billion and $15 billion a year in the form of lost tax revenue.

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