Drones will help industrial scale reforestation

A new study published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) says that the rate of tropical deforestation has risen by 62 percent between the 1990s and 2000s. One reason is that tropical deforestation has become more devastatingly efficient, notes geographer Douglas Morton of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “In the 60s, it was axes; in the 70s, chainsaws; and in the 2000s, it was tractors.”

The largest forest loss is happening in tropical Latin America, which clear-cut an average of 5,400 square miles per year from 1990 to 2000, according to the AGU study. Brazil topped the list at 2,300 square miles per year. Tropical Asia is also chopping down an average of 3,100 square miles of forest per year, with Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines leading the way.

CEO Lauren Fletcher, who spent 20 years as an engineer with NASA, says the only way to fight industrial-scale deforestation is with industrial-scale reforestation. "Destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. We believe that this industrial scale deforestation is best combated using the latest automation technologies." Thus, the goal is to plant about one billion trees a year. The first targets are in South Africa and the Amazonian jungles, both of which have suffered from widespread forest eradication.

The industrial-scale reforestation method isn't quite ready yet, but its prototype, which won £20k in funding from the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship last year, is expected to be built into a fully functioning platform by the end of the year. BioCarbon’s reforestation scheme will occur in five efficient steps, beginning with the employment of a drone fleet which will do a 3D aerial survey. First, drones are sent to fly over a potential planting zone, snapping photos that create 3D maps of the area to be reforested. The number of drones will vary depending up on the size of the seeding. Second, once the terrain data has been analysed, a suitable seeding pattern will be generated. Third, the drones, equipped with guidance and control software, carry pressurised canisters of seed pods with germinated seeds immersed in a nutrient-rich gel. Fourth, the drones, which will fly at a height of one to two meters, follow the planting patterns, droping the biodegradable seed pods down to the ground. The pods break open upon impact, allowing the germinated seed a chance to take root. And, finally, after planting, the drones do low-level flights to assess the health of the sprouts and saplings.

While a farmer might plant around 3,000 seeds a day, Fletcher believes that the drones can fire up to 36,000 seed pods daily, and often in areas where a human can’t reach. Working with local ecologists, BioCarbon will use the drones to spread a variety of tree species, as well as microorganisms and fungi designed to improve the soil quality. “The central focus is ecosystem restoration,” Fletcher says. The full implementation will have a team of two operators running seven or eight drones simultaneously. Planting at about ten pods per minute will result in about 36,000 trees per day for each team. However, BioCarbon's aim is to have about a hundred two-member teams in the next five or seven years, thus planting about one billion trees a year over 500,000 hectares. “By planting at the scale we’re looking at we can make a real long-term impact. We hope to do a lot of good in the world”, Fletcher concludes.