<![CDATA[Large forest areas are increasingly exposed to illegal activities and environmental threats, while conventional monitoring systems suffer from limited coverage, high energy consumption, and delayed response. To address these challenges, this study proposes an optimized real-time forest monitoring system designed for industrial-scale deployment in remote environments. The primary objective is to enhance surveillance efficiency by integrating AI-based object detection, long-range wireless communication, and resource-efficient system design. The proposed system employs ESP32-CAM sensor nodes integrated with 2.4 GHz CPE wireless links and a gateway-based YOLOv9 object detection framework. Bandwidth utilization is optimized through selective transmission of processed detection metadata instead of raw images, while deployment parameters are optimized using simulation-based planning. A web-based monitoring platform with an optimized REST API supports real-time visualization and alert generation. Experimental results show that the system achieves reliable communication up to 500 m with packet loss below 5% and latency under 50 ms at distances up to 300 m. Human detection accuracy reaches 98.5% under optimal conditions, with performance degradation observed in dense vegetation and low-light environments. Energy evaluation confirms sustainable operation, with ESP32 nodes consuming 160 mA and the gateway operating at 3.7 W. Comparative analysis indicates reductions of 37% in deployment cost, 24% in energy consumption, and 51% in latency compared to similar systems. This study concludes that the proposed architecture effectively balances accuracy, scalability, cost, and energy efficiency. The novelty lies in the integrated optimization of edge-based AI detection, selective data transmission, and simulation-driven deployment for industrial forest monitoring.]]>
