A Brazilian Plano de Manejo Florestal Sustentável requires 100% inventory of every timber species above the minimum cutting diameter in the designated management unit. Every tree gets a numbered IF plaque. Every measurement — CAP, DAP, total height — gets logged against that plaque number. The audit comes back and cross-checks your field data against the stumps. If the stump count exceeds the trees marked for cutting, someone has a problem with the autorizações de transporte de madeira.
The Chain of Custody That Starts in the Forest
The "Árvore ou Toco" field is a binary choice: Árvore (standing tree) or Toco (stump). In a PMFS audit, the distinction is the entire forensic question. A stump that doesn't correspond to an authorized cutting entry is evidence of extraction outside the authorized annual harvest. A standing tree logged at the previous 100% inventory that can no longer be found at its recorded GPS coordinates — also a stump problem, now an accountability problem.
The IF 100% plaque number (Num da Placa IF 100%) is the hard link between the field record and the legal authorization. The Instituto de Florestas assigns these plate numbers as part of the certified inventory process. When the auditor's plaque photo (Foto Placa) image field is populated alongside the plaque number, the record is self-verifying: the number in the text field must match the number visible in the photograph. Discrepancies between the two are audit flags before the data even leaves the field.
The GPS coordinates (Coordenadas) field pins each specimen to a verifiable location. In dense closed-canopy forest in the Mata Atlântica or Cerrado transition zones, individual trees don't have obvious landmarks. The GPS coordinate is the address. Without it, "Num. Sequencial 247 near the property boundary" is useless to anyone who wasn't there on the day of the original inventory.
Dasonometric Data That Survives the Audit
CAP (circunferência à altura do peito) and DAP (diâmetro à altura do peito) are both captured as separate fields in metres. CAP is the direct tape measurement — what you actually measure in the field with a forestry tape on a tree trunk at 1.30m from the ground. DAP is the derived diameter (CAP ÷ π), the metric actually used for volume calculations and cutting authorization thresholds. Capturing both eliminates the re-derivation step and provides an internal consistency check: DAP should equal CAP divided by approximately 3.14159. If the numbers don't validate, the measurement was recorded incorrectly in the field.
Total height (Altura) gives the volume computation its third dimension. The hint field labels it "Comprimento" — length — which reflects the practical reality that in harvested logs, total height from base to crown tip is measured as linear length once the tree is down. For standing trees, it's the clinometer reading to the crown apex.
The Ownership Layer That Makes It Legally Traceable
Two separate CPF/CNPJ fields capture the Detentor (legal holder of the PMFS authorization) and the Proprietário (land title owner) independently. In Brazilian forest management, these are often different entities — a company holding the management rights may operate on private land owned by a rural landowner who is separately registered. Both CPF/CNPJ numbers need to appear in the audit record because both appear in the IBAMA authorization chain.
The property name and parcel number fields complete the location hierarchy: property name → parcel number → sequential specimen number → GPS coordinate. That four-level address structure ties every individual tree in the database to a specific land registration, which is the linkage the Ministério do Meio Ambiente requires when cross-checking field records against the Cadastro Ambiental Rural.