How drones could help reforest the world's green lungs

DW (English)

Close to the COP30 venue in Belem, Brazil, degraded farmland is transformed back into thriving ecosystems. French start-up MORFO uses drones to plant native seeds, restoring thousands of hectares of Amazon forest.

Transcript

00:00A small test field not far from the climate conference in Belém, Brazil.

00:05This is what it looked like a few months ago, rock-hard soil compacted by livestock farming.

00:10The area was replanted using a drone in just a few minutes.

00:14Today it looks like this, grass, bushes, small trees, the area is thriving.

00:21High-tech reforestation, this is how start-up Morpho plans to regenerate huge areas, first

00:27in the Amazon.

00:31One drone can spread about 50 hectares a day.

00:34It means two people, one drone, it's about 1,000 hectares a month.

00:42It's a huge gap when you compare it to the traditional way of drone restoration.

00:48Usually workers can seed up to a hectare per day, says Gregory Maitre.

00:52Drones can be used to reforest areas that are far away and difficult to access.

00:58Small balls containing only native seeds mixed with nutrients and moisture are scattered

01:05so that as many as possible can germinate and rebuild the forest ecosystem.

01:10Morpho isn't the only company with this approach.

01:13Globally, dozens of firms are betting on drone technology for reforestation.

01:18So that's exactly what we do.

01:22This cover for the soil, this one for the shade and those ones that are the actual durable

01:32trees that will grow up.

01:34And as I told you, in five years it will be higher than this one and this one will start

01:41exiting the system.

01:43In 2024 alone, about 1.7 million hectares of forest were lost in the Amazon.

01:48Much of it was illegally cut down.

01:51Morpho says it determines which plants are suitable for which areas with the help of drone

01:56images, soil samples and special data analysis including artificial intelligence.

02:03Customers include mine operators who are subject to reforestation requirements and cities like

02:07Rio de Janeiro.

02:08The company also provides reforestation based carbon credits sold to companies and countries

02:13around the world to enable them to offset some of their emissions.

02:17That's still a non-mature market.

02:22But also, I think that everybody now understands that we have to do something to provide reforestation

02:32and to act to have more forests to limit climate change.

02:38And well, those are financial tools that can really remunerate people that will build

02:44up forests.

02:45Morpho just kicked off a reforestation program of 20,000 hectares just hours away from Belém.

02:51For now, the company is focusing on Brazil, but they aim to reach out to new markets in

02:55Western Africa and Southeast Asia in the future.

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