(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 23 OTT - Greenpeace Romania has recently launched an application for Android and iOS for countering the issue of illegal woodcutting in the country, in particular the virgin forests. The application, named 'Forest Guardians', allows users to monitor the forests using satellite images, to report suspicious woodcutting to the authorities and to check the legality of any wood carriage, by verifying the registration plates of the vehicle.

Greenpeace said that in the first two weeks since the launch, more than 5,000 people downloaded the application, that has currently more than 1,000 active users.

According to data recently made public by Greenpeace, from 2000 to 2011, approximately 360,000 hectares become deforested or degraded, while a total of 12,487 cases of illegal logging were identified in Romania in 2017 only, an increase of 32% compared to 2016. (ANSA).