Using IoT to prevent illegal logging in Romania

Romania is the host of the first “smart forest”, an example of how digital innovation can help biodiversity protection.

The country faced illegal deforestation, with a challenge around identifying where deforestation was happening and intervening before it was too late. Vodafone created an IoT system with devices called ‘guardians’, which are equipped with acoustic sensors. These sensors ‘listen’ to the sounds from the forest and send the captured data, via Internet, to a cloud platform, where the AI recognises the specific sounds of logging. The system then sends real-time alerts with geolocation to an app installed on forest administrators’ or rangers’ phones, so they can intervene immediately. The solution works over Vodafone Romania’s Supernet network.

MC VDF Deforestation DOC