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Smart_Planet_2 00804.txt

Can injecting trees with microchips help save the Amazon? A tree falls in the rainforest. Who cut it down? What species is it? How big? Was it selectively cut or clearcut with all its woody neighbors? Where's it heading now? A microchip can tell us. At least that's the idea behind AÃ Â§Ã Â£o Verde's electronic forest management project in Mato grosso, Brazil. Placing microchips into 2, 500 tree trunks within 247 acres of forest, the organization is testing whether the chips could help promote Brazil's sustainable forestry industry. With radio-frequency identification, the chips, which are encased in white plastic, notify forest managers of the tree's whereabouts in its travels from tree to log to mill. Brazil's deforestation rate has slowed since the 1990s when it (and Indonesia) had the highest rates in the world. Still the country lost about 10,000 square miles of forest each year between 2000 and 2010, according the UN Food and Agriculture Administration. That's a lot of logs to keep track of. Reuters: Such technology can help isolate fraud originating where the trees are said cut Gary Dodge, director of science and certification at the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council, which has led a global push for lumber certification. If there is fraud taking place between the forest owner and the mill, then a microchip would be great help in combating illegal logging, said Dodge. The scheme seems a bit labor intensive and expensive, but verifying the origins of wood could help sellers fetch higher prices at the market for lumber. The Forest Stewardship Council certifies wood as responsibly harvested using criteria that spans from indigenous rights to its impact on biodiversity. In a similar effort the council is undertaking a project in Russia, Sweden and South africa to see how satellite imagery might help better manage forests. Earlier this week, the Brazilian government announced it will begin allowing private companies to manage almost 42,000 square miles of the Amazon over the next 5 years. The management of the logging concessions is meant to selectively cut some logs while keeping the forest largely intact. Maybe these companies will need some chips?

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