More and more trees in the Amazon are cut down each year causing increased deforestation. But with the use of a new microchip system, land owners will be able to obtain data on who cut each individual tree down, as well as the tree's location and size. 

Brazil is currently facing issues with deforestation, where thousands of square miles of trees are cut each year. This trend makes Brazil "one of the world's biggest sources of greenhouse gasses," putting the country under international pressure to decrease deforestation.

To prevent deforestation and illegal slash-and-burn logging, land owners have become more concerned with where the lumber they're purchasing came from, and if its loss contributed to the damage of the Amazon. They also want to protect trees that are on their land.

Now, forestry engineer Paulo Borges has developed a microchip system where chips are attached to a trees base, and data concerning that tree can be retrieved with a hand-held device. 

"People talk a lot these days about wood coming from sustainable forest practices -- this is a system that can prove it," said Borges. 

Borges is a part of the Acao Verde, or Green Action, organization which is supervising this small pilot project. The group aims to reduce deforestation by pushing ideas like microchips and lumber certification.

These microchips contain key information that tells buyers where the tree was cut down, which sawmill processed and sold the wood, what size the tree was, etc. Acao Verde believes these microchips will prevent the practice of illegally harvesting wood and then creating false certification papers for the wood. 

"If there is fraud taking place between the forest owner and the mill, then a microchip would be great help in combating illegal logging," said Gary Dodge, director of science and certification at the Forest Stewardship Council, a nonprofit organization that encourages the responsible management of the world's forests.