In Russia, AI Helps Stop Illegal Logging

An artificial intelligence system flagged satellite anomalies in Siberia, leading to the arrest of loggers and the seizure of timber worth tens of thousands of dollars.

In the Novosibirsk region of Russia, artificial intelligence helped expose an illegal logging operation. According to the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, a neural network spotted suspicious activity while analyzing satellite imagery.

The system alerted the Ministry of Digital Development, whose staff noticed the anomaly on a digital map. That warning was passed to environmental officials, who rushed to the scene.

The loggers didn’t surrender willingly — they tried to flee. Inspectors managed to halt the operation and detain the suspects. Preliminary estimates put the volume of illegally harvested wood at 65 cubic meters, with a market value exceeding three million rubles (around $37,300). All case materials have been transferred to law enforcement for criminal prosecution.

This isn’t Russia’s first experiment with high-tech forest monitoring. Regional authorities increasingly rely on digital systems powered by neural networks to track vast landscapes. These tools analyze data from both satellite feeds and ground-based cameras. Whenever the AI flags a fire risk or suspicious activity, human dispatchers send firefighters or inspectors directly to the location.