Helveta Announces Contract to Deploy CI World as the Nationwide Forest Information Management System in the Democratic Republic of Congo
PR Newswire
OXFORD, England, February 8
OXFORD, England, February 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Helveta Ltd., the leading
provider of asset management and supply chain monitoring technology for the
forest sector, has announced an exclusive 5 year supply agreement with
Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), to supply the Ministry of
Environment, Conservation of Nature and Tourism (MECNT) for the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) with the software technology platform and support
services to manage the entire supply chain of wood and wood products in the
largest tropical forest in Africa.
The project will utilise Helveta's CI World(TM) technology to map, record
inventory, and track and trace wood produced from the Congolese forestry
sector, from the standing tree in the forest, through wood processing plants,
and finally to the nation's export gates and local wholesale markets. CI
World will be the software engine of the forest management platform, which
through SGS turnkey project management will afford the MECNT visibility and
control for the DRC's national timber production. The project will strengthen
timber supply chain control and revenue collection from the Congolese timber
sector.
The DRC is home to the world's second largest tropical rainforest,
representing 80% of Africa's rainforest cover. At more than 130 million
hectares, these forests are disappearing at a rate of 0.6% per year.* The
DRC's valuable tropical forests are an essential source of revenue for a
nation still recovering from years of civil war. As is the case in many
tropical timber producing nations, illegal logging is a significant threat to
the sustainable development of the sector as well as to the hard currency
revenues critical to the DRC's economic recovery. The government of the DRC,
through the MECNT, is moving to improve its forest management activities. The
national forest management project will ensure that the sector develops with
a robust timber legality assurance system and will equip the DRC to meet the
requirements of international agreements, such as the EU's Forest Law
Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT), to prevent illegal logging and the
associated trade in illegal timber products.
Helveta Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Newton, commented: "We are
pleased to be working with SGS and the MECNT to further expand our footprint
across Africa. This project in DRC represents the eighth African nation to
deploy Helveta technology and will help the DRC improve its forest sector
management activities by ensuring legal compliance in timber production. More
importantly, it will allow our clients to demonstrate CI World's merits as a
'fit-for-purpose' software platform providing legality assurance support for
countries engaged in or about to engage in the VPA process."
About Helveta
Helveta was incorporated in 2004 and is the developer of the CI World(TM)
software platform. CI World is a unique technology providing fully auditable
traceability and chain of custody control for extended supply chains in the
Timber and Food production sectors. CI World and its components -
TracElite(TM) and CI Earth(TM) - have won a number of awards as innovative
technologies for the timber sector. Helveta is privately held.
http://www.helveta.com
* http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/congo-ba
sin-forest-fund/
(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste the
hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if
one exists.)
For further information, please contact:
Louise Richardson, Ranieri Communications.
Tel: +44-1296-394-614; louise@raniericoms.com
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