Innovative monitoring will increase safety for forests of the Ministry of Defense

Federal State Independent Institution “Forestry Directorate” of the Russian Ministry of Defense is to create a system for identification of fires or unlawful felling in forests located on lands owned by the Ministry.

“In order to improve the efficiency of the fire protection system for forests and of the control of felling in the land of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in 2016, the Forestry Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense is working on development of an automated information system Oboronles capable of solving a number of interconnected issues, – said Vladislav Kholodkov, the head of the Federal State Independent Institution “Forestry Directorate” of the Russian Ministry of Defense. – In particular, the system will enable to improve the monitoring efficiency for the condition of forests owned by the Russian Ministry of Defense, to minimize the damage caused by natural fires, and to   reduce costs for protection of forests”.

As clarified by Ivan Petrov, a counselor to the head of the Forestry Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Oboronles information system can provide automation of all the key processes of the forest fire protection including satellite monitoring and video monitoring of natural fires, tracing of changes in forests, including unlawful felling, identification of forest fires at the area from 0.1 ha and automated identification of any felling at the area from 0.3 ha. Oboronles system as it is enables to obtain timely and objective information on condition of forests of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

According to Ivan Petrov, application of Oboronles system in other territories (including the State Forest Resource and Special Protected Natural Areas) will positively influence the general situation with the forests in the Russian Federation and will promote preservation and enhancement of the environment in general, the more so as for executive agencies the access to such system with its basic functionality is absolutely free.

A governing factor is the fact that the developed solution is based exclusively on Russian information and technological platforms, it complies with requirements of Russian and international information security standards.

Let us remember that fire safety in forests in the land of defense is the responsibility of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The measures of the fire safety and extinguishing of forest fires in military forestries are implemented by the Federal State Independent Institution “Forestry Directorate” of the Russian Ministry of Defense that runs 39 branches in 62 constituent territories of the Russian Federation.

In total, in 2016, 204 forest fires occurred in the land of defense and security, and the territory covered by fire amounted to 40.700 hectares.