Cedrus libani, commonly known as the Cedar of Lebanon is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is an evergreen conifer that can reach 40 m in height. Cedrus libani is the national emblem of Lebanon and is a symbol of holiness, eternity and peace. Cedars are widely used as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens.

The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Hebrew priests were ordered by Moses to use the bark of the Lebanon cedar in the treatment of leprosy. Solomon also procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah used the Lebanon cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world, with the tree explicitly mentioned near the end of Psalm 92 as a symbol of the righteous.

The Lebanon cedar is the national emblem of Lebanon, and is displayed on the flag of Lebanon and coat of arms of Lebanon. It is also the logo of Middle East Airlines (MEA), which is Lebanon's national carrier. Beyond that, it is also the main symbol of Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" of 2005, along with many Lebanese political parties and movements, such as the Kataeb Party, the Lebanese Forces, the National Liberal Party, and the Future Movement. Finally, Lebanon is sometimes metonymically referred to as the Land of the Cedars. So, basically cedars are considered to be one of the most important Lebanese heritage and should be very well conserved.

Back in the day, there were many attempts to conserve Lebanon’s cedars starting with the Roman emperor Hadrian who created an imperial forest and ordered it be marked by inscribed boundary stones, two of which are in the museum of the American University of Beirut. However, with time, and over the years, there has been extensive deforestation in the Lebanese forests and Lebanon has lost many trees along the way. Recently, a campaign of reforestation of cedars has taken place through an active program combining replanting and protection of natural regeneration from browsing goats, hunting, forest fires, and woodworms.

We at Tragging, are aiming to contribute and participate in this campaign to protect our heritage. So we developed an RFID based system to track and manage Cedar Trees. This system enables the detection and identification of trees and illegal logging cases and hence preventing risks of species distinction and deforestation threats as well as identifying the conditions of the trees (does it need more water, is the temperature appropriate etc.)

Tragging’s Cedars Tracking system relies on RFID passive tags attached to each tree serving as their unique identity and handheld RFID readers. These RFID tags are water and humid resistant, and endures temperature fluctuations and pressure. These RFID tags install quickly and securely onto the trees, enabling accurate real-time tracking, and supplying the data needed to optimize industrial processes, workflow and inventory management.

The forest’s officers will be in charge of the handheld readers where they can scan the tags off the trees and gather the data where the database of the software will in return analyze and process the gathered data. The system updates maintenance status records and access details about when the tree was last watered or pruned, as well as how and by whom.

Moreover, we have further developed the system so that even the forest’s visitors could take advantage of the RFID tags. When the visitors scan the tags on the trees with their smartphones, they will be able to know the history of the tree, its age, species, size, who planted it, when etc. In this way, forest’s management can save a lot of money since they don’t need to hire a staff to inform visitors about the trees as everything will be automated.

This system streamlines and improves all the management process and reduce a substantial amount of time.

Tragging’s RFID tree management system handles inventory management, records maintenance history and inspection information and analyzes tree data. When maintaining a tree—for example, adding water, fertilizer or pruning—a contractor first reads its tag, then inputs data indicating which services were provided. Within minutes, a list of those trees and their location on a map will be determined.