Over the last 20 years, an estimated 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed globally. The loss of the world’s forests directly affects climate change, biodiversity, pollution, soil erosion, and more. The majority of deforestation is due to human misuse, such as poor management of agricultural lands, overlogging, and urbanization. For the most part, these issues have been addressed to protect forests. However, natural disasters like wildfires still claim millions of hectares of forest, as was brutally apparent during the 2019-2020 wildfires in Australia. According to the World Wildlife Fund, “Over 29 million acres of forest and woodlands were burned, pushing many threatened species, including the koala, to the brink of extinction. So much was lost, and the impacts will be felt for years to come.”

Experts around the world have been working on methods for mitigating the chances of wildfires, which have increased tremendously in recent history. While efforts to stop these fires from happening are of paramount importance, equally vital is finding ways to restore the damage left in their wake. In 2018, Australian mechanical engineer Andrew Walker and South African geospatial data expert Andries Louw decided to combine their knowledge to combat deforestation by leveraging drone technology.

They founded AirSeed Technologies and began trials of a biodiverse planting project in South Africa in early 2019. Their program proved successful because they went beyond the idea of using drones to plant trees. They use the drones to collect data to provide and manage the best outcomes. This includes planning where to plant, what to plant, the specific needs of the soil and plants, and protecting the project’s results. “There are immense global opportunities for AirSeed given the uniqueness of its bio-diverse, scalable ‘seed pod meets drone’ system,” said Mara Bún, AirSeed board member, chair of Australian Impact Investments, and director of Australian Ethical Investments and GreenCollar. “Nowhere else is there proprietary technology where the pod captures the local biome and is planted and then monitored via drones for the best chance of success.”

AirSeed has challenged itself to plant 100 million trees, but to do so, they know they need to further prove themselves to stakeholders. This is why they were happy to participate in a research project being conducted by students from the Monash Warwick Alliance on how drones can benefit ecological restoration. The Monash Warwick Alliance (MWA) is an educational partnership between Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Warwick in Warwickshire, England. MWA students Jessica Coldrey and Benjamin Thompson published a paper in the Journal of People and Nature titled “Evaluating Stakeholder Perceptions on Drone Use in Forest Restoration Using a Social–Ecological Systems Framework.”

The authors begin their paper by stating how popular drones have become for reforestation efforts. “Yet, there is little empirical data on how the development and application of drones are perceived by restoration managers and stakeholders and how drones intersect with existing forest social–ecological systems (SESs),” the paper’s abstract states. “Here, we investigate how drone tree planting initiatives in Australia can support ecosystem restoration. Through interviews and focus groups with key actors, we examine the opportunities and challenges that have been experienced or are foreseen with drone use.” While most drone-based studies are executed to test how a drone performs in different situations, Jessica and Benjamin chose not to observe how drones work. Rather, they compiled evidence on how people responded to the use of drones for specific tasks.

Working with AirSeed to gain access to a wide range of clients and potential stakeholders, Jessica and Benjamin conducted lengthy interviews to discover people’s perceptions of drones being used for ecological restoration. “Ultimately, drones were considered a tool to support, rather than replace, traditional planting methods, offering a practical solution in certain situations, such as in difficult-to-access sites,” Jessica and Benjamin conclude in their research paper. “We anticipate that drones will become a mainstay within forest SESs and increasingly support forest restoration efforts in the future.”

As the challenges of deforestation and ecological restoration continue to grow, innovative solutions like those offered by AirSeed Technologies and the insights from the MWA research highlight the importance of embracing technology in environmental conservation. By integrating drones into restoration efforts, we can not only enhance the efficiency of reforestation initiatives but also ensure a more sustainable future for our planet’s forests. With continued collaboration and innovation, there is hope that we can mitigate the impacts of deforestation and restore the vital ecosystems that support both biodiversity and human life.

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