The British start-up BioCarbon Engineering proposes the use of drones to support and complement human reforestation work in damaged ecosystems.
Sending medication, agricultural practices, or aid during catastrophes. These are some of the surprising uses for drones – vehicles which in just a few years have gone from being an attractive promise, to a social, economic and industrial reality.
This type of use has also been of an important environmental nature. The un-manned vehicles already serve as tools for exploration, mapping and aerial fumigation of fields used for crops – and could even be used in the rehabilitation and recuperation of certain ecosystems.
Reforestation with algorithms
Following the idea of some investigators who proposed using drones to preserve tropical forests, the start-up BioCarbon Engineering, has proposed using these vehicles to carry out reforestation. As explained on their website, 26 billion trees are destroyed globally each year. In order to replant and rehabilitate the affected areas, the British company plans to use drones with which they will repopulate a billion trees at a time.
Reforestation tasks are usually complex, tedious and especially expensive, but also necessary in regions where forests need to be recovered following catastrophes such as fires. BioCarbon Engineering believes that drones make these jobs easier, smoother, and cheaper. In particular, the British start-up proposes that automated technology will improve mapping and especially the planting of new trees.
With regards to planting, BioCarbon Engineering has opted for introducing platforms with algorithms which enable a more precise reforestation. The use of these vehicles does not mean that they will take over human jobs, as Lauren Fletcher (CEO of the company and ex NASA engineer), explained. It just means that these jobs will be able to be carried out more effectively thanks to the use of these tools.
Recently, the company was recognised as one of the 14 winning start-ups at the Solutions Summit in New York, for having taken it upon themselves to solve one of the 70 global challenges for sustainable development set out by the United Nations. With this business model, the drones are taking on a significant environmental challenge, helping to support the work carried out to improve and look after our planet.
