Science & Technology

Drones could plant one billion trees a year

By T.K. Randall
October 6, 2015

Image: Leaf Forest
Credit: Den Vish / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) BioCarbon Engineering believes that unmanned aerial vehicles can provide an effective solution to the problem of planting trees over large areas that have been ravaged by deforestation.

The system they have come up with first involves using fixed-wing drones to fly across and analyze the topography and biodiversity of an area to best determine where the new trees should go.

A second multi-rotor drone equipped with a special seed-planting 'gun' then flies over the region, firing seed pods as it goes as part of what has been described as a "precision planting platform."The BioCarbon team presented the concept at the United Nations Headquarters in New York last week as one of fourteen winning startups invited to the 'Solutions Summit' conference which aims to bring together innovators to help achieve environmental sustainability goals over the next 70 years.

Following initial interest in its solutions BioCarbon has already managed to secure a commitment from a plantation in South Africa and has plans to expand its operations in the near future.

A video from the company explaining the drone system in more detail can be viewed below.


Source: Gizmodo

Tags: Drone, Trees