EnvirMin Alexe says new SUMAL will let us know at any time about logging operations

By rendering the Wood Material Tracking System (SUMAL) operational, we will be able, in real time, 24 hours a day, to have a very good management of the wood material and we will know, at any time, how much it has been cut from Romania's forests and where this wood goes, says the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Costel Alexe.

"By making the Wood Material Tracking System operational, we will be able, in real time, 24 hours a day, to have a very good management of the wood material. We will know, at any time, how much has been cut from the forests of Romania, where this wood goes, to which warehouse and, especially, afterwards, to third parties. It is important to understand that once with the operationalization of SUMAL, all state institutions will be in close coordination - whether we are talking about the forestry directorates, the forest guards or the institutions under the subordination of the Ministry of Interior - 24 hours a day they will collaborate and ensure that everything that is cut today in Romania is done according to the law. I also want to assure all Romanians, that by having SUMAL, it will no longer be possible to carry out the double transport on the same approval, no one will be able to transport, with approval, larger or smaller quantities because for each transport they will be obliged to upload the three photos - front, side, back, to prove that they have the amount of wood with which they left the forest and will end up in the warehouse," said Alexe, in a press statement sent to AGERPRES on Friday.

He added that the authorities had turned a blind eye to the illegalities committed within the forest fund.

The Wood Material Tracking System (SUMAL) 2.0 was approved by the Executive, through Government Decision.

According to the same source, the new version of SUMAL brings innovations that help, on the one hand, the work of combating illegal logging and, at the same time, simplifies the work of forestry workers in the field.

Thus, it will be possible to track, in real time, by GPS coordinates, any transport of wood from the loading point to the unloading point, thus becoming very difficult to appear those illegal stops made with the same notice.

The new SUMAL system has 11 modules: Super Admin - the administration module of the SUMAL system; Forest Guard - module for Forest Guards; Agent - intended for economic operators; Arrangement - intended for highlighting in GIS format the national forest fund; Forestry service - intended for forest managers; Wood Tracking - intended for wood traceability; IWood Tracking - designed to control the traceability of the wood mass; Forest Inspector (mobile application and web platform) - intended for the population in order to verify the transport of wood materials; SNEICS - intended for the centralized record of forestry contraventions; MFR - intended for tracking forest reproductive materials; DDS - intended for the centralized record of controls according to EU regulation 995/2010 Due Diligence.