Irish forest IT and forestry data analytics developers Treemetrics Ltd has announced that it has successfully developed a unique platform for forest owners to support the easier adoption of forest certification and more transparent auditing of management practices.
The two-year development which was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Enterprise Ireland delivers ‘state-of-the-art’ satellite and drone imagery processing to provide new levels of trust and transparency for forest certification and the rapidly emerging forest carbon certification market.
Treemetrics are a fantastic example of an innovative Irish company using digital space data, that is freely available to all people living in Ireland through our membership in the European Space Agency, to ensure the sustainability of raw materials on Earth, said Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, TD.
The recent report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that harmful carbon emissions have never been higher, highlights the urgency of developing innovative technologies to tackle climate change. It is heartening to see Irish companies like Treemetrics playing their part in helping to reduce greenhouse gases by utilizing space-data innovation for forest owners in tackling carbon emissions, Minister Damien English said.
Consumers globally are demanding products that are sourced from producers and suppliers that work in harmony with nature.
Forest certification has been an especially important initiative over the past two decades to promote better forest management.
Forest Carbon offsetting is a rapidly emerging process that forest owners and large enterprises are utilizing, to help reduce the levels of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Investors are demanding quality carbon offsetting projects with new levels of data integrity. The new platform leverages Treemetrics’ precision measurement system to reduce investment risk and increase overall adoption of this important mechanism, said Enda Keane, founder, and CEO of Treemetrics.
Satellite imagery and analysis tools have a major role to play in building trust in both forest carbon and sustainable forest management certification processes. Our goal was to deliver a technology solution to enable increased climate-smart forest management adoption. The system which was released today will help many stakeholders along the forest value chain, Enda Keane said.
The leading global forest certification standard PEFC Global supported Treemetrics to ensure the system meets the needs of their certificate holders internationally.
PEFC currently certifies 790 million acres of forestry across the globe.
This is a great example of how an Irish company, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the European Space Agency, can perform world-class R&D and bring an innovative product, ensuring forest sustainability and quantifying forest carbon, to global markets, said Joe Madden, Manager, Company Research & Development, Enterprise Ireland.
