# Blockchain Applications in Forestry: A Systematic Literature Review
## 4 Blockchain Applications in the Forestry Sector
### Forest Management  
Eight included articles (38%) investigated the blockchain applications in forest management. These articles were mainly focused on (1) the deforestation and degradation of forests; (2) protection/rational utilization of forest resources, including preserving biodiversity, and avoiding overexploitation and (3) carbon trading. Table 3 presents the data extracted from included studies in the area of 'forest management'. The subsection presents and analyzes articles in Table 3. Two articles [42; 43] are not listed in Table 3 because they do not contain the information for this section, but they are discussed in the next section. Two included articles focused on adding blockchain technology in deforestation and forest protection, such as the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and enhancing forest carbon stock in developing countries (REDD+) projects [45; 46]. REDD+ projects aim to reduce emissions to enhance carbon stocks in developing countries from deforestation and forest degradation by local, regional, national, and global actions [49]. The authors in [45] focus on the carbon offset by forest protection and planting trees to reduce emissions. By implementing the blockchain in the carbon trading market, the information of the asset type represented by the credit is added to the user's blockchain account (wallet) as a token in the form of small pieces of data [45]. The owner of trees submits all information to request the carbon credit via smart contract algorithm. All information is evaluated by smart contract automatically. All owners can use tokens to perform transactions in the blockchain-powered carbon market [45]. [PERSON] et al. [46] discussed how blockchain technology addressed issues in forest protection, especially in REDD+ projects: (1) blockchain-based technology can address funding issues in REDD+ projects by offering REDD+ credits to exchange cryptocurrencies. (2) Blockchain-based applications help to prove whether atmospheric carbon is removed permanently by improving the reliability of monitoring the carbon sequestration. (3) With the involvement of blockchain technology, REDD+ projects decrease the risk of corruption and secure the rights of forest owners and indigenous communities. [PERSON] et al. [4] proposed an application using imaging processing and blockchain technology to protect endangered species of wood varieties and avoid overexploitation in \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Reference** & **Smart Contract** & **Platform** & **Main Focus** & **Purpose(s) of the Use of Blockchain** \\ \hline
[44] & N/A & Ethereum & A blockchain-based web application on forestry nurseries (inventory) management & To monitor the forest plants and record information of each plant for further validation \\ \hline
[45] & Yes & N/A & The use of blockchain on carbon trading market & To address the key concerns to REDD+ projects \\ \hline
[46] & Yes & Ethereum & A blockchain solution for REDD+ & To improve the reliability of carbon sequestration monitoring and protecting global forests \\ \hline
[47] & Yes & N/A & Blockchain on forestry carbon sink projects & To optimize forestry carbon sink trading and reduce emissions \\ \hline
[48] & Yes & Ethereum & Participatory forest management with blockchain (blockchain-based governance) & For governance purposes \\ \hline
[4] & Yes & Ethereum & Image processing and blockchain for forest management & To save species of tree varieties and avoid overexploited by identifying the number and type of trees \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Blockchain-based applications in forest management. illegal ways, like smuggling or illegal trading. The workflow of this proposed application has three processes. At first, a drone takes images of the forest cover or a plantation and uploads the image to a module in the application. Then, the module can identify the type of trees and the number of trees using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm.