A new company, BioCarbon Engineering, is aiming to use drones to reverse deforestation. The drones will be used to map out suitable deforested areas, before effortlessly dispersing the seedlings. The company has estimated that with the technology, they can plant up to one billion trees per year.
Founder of BioCarbon Engineering, Lauren Fletcher said “We are going to counter industrial scale deforestation using industrial scale reforestation,”
“Together with tree seeds, we hope to seed in other species including micro-organisms and fungi to improve the soil quality and ensure long-term sustainability of our efforts,” she added.
The video describes how the project intends to meet its goals. In short, the drones will first be sent to gather detailed terrain data to generate 3D maps; these maps will also help determine which areas are best suited for planting. Another drone will then follow a predetermined path, and drop biodegradable seedling pods from a height of 1-2 meters. On impact the pods, which are filled with seedlings and a protective layer of nutrient rich gel, will split allowing the seedlings to grow unhindered.
“The only way we’re going to take on these age-old problems is with techniques that weren’t available to us before. By using this approach we can meet the scale of the problem out there,” Fletcher said.
Today’s reforestation efforts are not only considerably time consuming, they also require a large workforce of manual laborers, which in itself is very costly. This project could offer a more productive, and successful, alternative which could aid the world’s forests more effectively and expeditiously.
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Laudable and deserving of success but my thoughts immediately recalled the Groundnut project fiasco that Britain sponsored in an African country, perhaps Ghana
This may have some promise. I would hope that extremely strong preference is given to native species in their original habitats, and that the variety of seedlings dropped approximates as closely as possible the original complete palette of diversity for the sites. AND – if a site was not originally a forest or woodland but a grassland or prairie or other, that the site would either be rejected for reforestation, or else the habitat is know to be extensive across the region so that reforestation would not jeopardize the presence of the habitat.
How would the seedlings be protected from herbivores, grazers and browsers?
A tree farm is not a forest. Notice they don’t say “industrial scale forest.”