DENR, Smart team up to protect forests

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has teamed up with telecommunications giant Smart Communications Inc. and two other private sector partners to develop a pilot monitoring system designed to curb illegal forest activities and prevent future disasters similar to Typhoon Ondoy in 2009.

During the memorandum of agreement signing on Monday, the DENR, Smart, the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF) led by businessman Manny Pangilinan and system developer Wide-Out Workforces Inc. also formally launched a mobile application to monitor the activities within the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL) for the next six months.