More Than 100 Cameras Track Wildfire Risk in Zabaykalsky Krai
The wildfire season has begun in Zabaykalsky Krai, where authorities have expanded the Lesookhranitel (Forest Guard system) video monitoring network. The number of automated surveillance cameras has increased from 44 to 101, extending coverage to more than 3 million hectares.
Last year, wildfires in Zabaykalsky Krai had already consumed a record 2.3 million hectares of forest by early summer. By the end of the year, the figure reached 3 million hectares, compared with 1.8 to 2 million hectares affected in 2024. The scale of fires in 2025 led to the introduction of a federal-level emergency regime. Now, as the new fire season begins, with restrictions in place since March 20, the region is intensifying monitoring efforts.
Artificial intelligence now scans a wider horizon around the clock. When smoke appears, the system automatically detects ignition points, calculates coordinates and sends alerts to dispatch centers. At the same time, the region is expanding ground-based monitoring by deploying 1,000 camera traps in forests. These devices help not only detect fires but also identify offenders, as 80% of wildfires are caused by human activity.
Technology Against the Elements
Lesookhranitel is described as the world’s largest wildfire monitoring system – for comparison, a similar AI system in California operates more than 1,100 cameras. The former runs across more than 70 regions in Russia and connects over 3,300 cameras. It is included in the national software registry. The system combines computer vision with geospatial technologies, allowing it not only to detect smoke but also to assess threats before fires reach settlements, power lines or agricultural land.
Last year, developers at Geoskan and Formoza-Soft integrated the Geoskan 801 drone with the Lesookhranitel platform. The drone can now stream video, thermal imaging data and telemetry to servers in real time, effectively becoming the system’s aerial sensor layer. As part of the national project Bespilotnye aviatsionnye sistemy (Unmanned Aviation Systems program), more than 1,000 Geoskan 801 drones have been deployed across Russia.
Protecting Forests at Scale
In Zabaykalsky Krai, Lesookhranitel helped detect 39 forest fires last year. Several arsonists were identified and prosecuted.
Early detection makes it possible to contain fires while they are still measured in square meters, preventing large-scale crown fires, evacuations and prolonged smoke events. It also significantly reduces the costs typically associated with suppressing major wildfires. In practice, Lesookhranitel helps regions get through fire season without catastrophic losses.
Countries with vast forest areas face similar challenges, which gives the technology export potential, particularly in partner markets seeking to reduce reliance on Western solutions.
In the coming years, Russia plans to build a unified digital ecosystem for environmental safety, where stationary cameras, camera traps, drones and satellite data operate as a single system. Automation of monitoring and response is becoming not just a technological upgrade but a necessary condition for maintaining control over large territories.
