What is drone reforestation and why is it important?
Aerial seeding can plant trees up to ten times faster than manual methods while costing a third the price of conventional methods. Learn more about how drones are helping replant forests around the world.
Image courtesy of lucien dachman
We’re experiencing a global climate crisis. Over the past couple of decades, the world has lost approximately 15 billion trees per year due to deforestation. This has contributed to increased levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, one of the greenhouse gasses that contributes the most to climate change. Currently, planting trees is the fastest and cheapest way to sequester carbon, as trees are able to process carbon and store it in their living tissue. Scientists have even estimated that there is space to plant 1.2 trillion additional trees on the planet, which would be enough to absorb more than human emissions. However, planting a forest is an incredibly slow, difficult, and labor-intensive process.
Recently, several organizations have started leveraging drone technology for more efficient planting. While like any technological intervention, drones are not a perfect solution, precision planting has been shown to be a cost-effective and efficient way to amplify reforestation efforts.
Aerial seeding can plant trees up to ten times faster than manual methods while costing a third the price of conventional methods. Moreover, drones can access rugged or unsafe terrain, helping protect forestry technicians’ safety while planting in places people cannot easily reach. Aerial seeding can also be better for the landscape being reforested. Aerial seeding reduces erosion caused by vehicles or pedestrians and eliminates the risk of introducing invasive species that can accompany the use of wheeled technologies. Plus, drones can transport and plant up to 50 species at a time, increasing biodiversity and helping to provide for a more resilient ecosystem in the future.
the world loses approximately 15 billion trees each year to deforestation
What does it look like to plant a forest using drones?
Reforestation using drones is a multi-step process. Usually, you begin by surveying the planting area using drones with multispectral imagery or LIDAR. This data collected can be used to map the site and understand its topography. This information is then used to program the drone's flight path so that areas that aren't suitable for planting, like cliffs or water bodies, are excluded.
Next, you encase seeds in pods with fertilizers, biochar, clay, and other materials to protect them and promote growth.
As it turns out, it takes a lot more than just dropping seeds from the sky to grow a forest.
One of the biggest challenges faced by companies and organizations in this sector is seedling survival, with one study finding that certain drone-planted conifers have survival rates below 20 percent.
“As it turns out, it takes a lot more than just dropping seeds from the sky to grow a forest.”
To address this issue, many groups have worked to develop seed-containing vessels shaped like pucks or pods that can protect the seed from impact and nurture its growth.
These seed vessels can have many components. Dronecoria describes their three-step process for seed pod development: first, the seeds are coated with a priming treatment, which can ensure that seeds that would take many years to germinate in an arid area can do so with a single rainfall event.
Next, the seeds are coated in clay that incorporates many other materials, including nutrients that stimulate root development, plant extracts that serve as animal repellents, and mycorrhizal fungi to help absorb nutrients and retain water.
From there, you are ready to start distributing seeds. Post planting, some companies continue to use drones to spray saplings with fertilizers.
Where is drone reforestation occurring?
There are organizations involved with drone reforestation all around the world. Companies like Flash Forest (Canada), Dendra (UK), Lord of the Trees (Australia), and DroneSeed (US) have completed projects restoring animal habitats and reforesting landscapes post-wildfire. Release Labs and Panama Flying Labs are two offshoots of WeRobotics that have been working on reforesting mangroves using drones. Other applications of drone reseeding are located across the globe, including in Spain, Myanmar, Somalia, Sumatra, New Zealand, Madagascar, Turkey, India, the United Arab Emirates, and beyond.
seed pods are encased with fertilizers, biochar, clay, and other materials to protect them and promote growth
Aerial seeding can plant trees up to 10 times faster than manual methods
How can I get involved?
Drone reforestation has the ability to amplify traditional reforestation efforts and help move the needle on climate change. To get involved check out the following resources:
If you are generally interested in getting involved with open-source drone reforestation work, check out Dronecoria’s page on ways to volunteer with their organization
If you would like to help sponsor some drone planting, check out 1 for 1 Foundation’s website: 1 for 1 is a nonprofit dedicated to planting trees via drone all around the world
Stay up to date
Join our bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates about the latest developments and opportunities in the drones for reforestation space.
Start your own reforestation project
Book a call with our team to chat about how we can help design and implement your own reforestation project.
