Forest restoration: concepts and the potential for its automation
ABSTRACT: In 2014, the UN New York Climate Summit set a goal to restore forest to 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, to counter climate change. Conventional tree-planting with human labour is unlikely to achieve this goal, due to the inaccessibility of most sites available for restoration and limited labour availability. This paper, therefore, establishes the basic concepts of forest restoration (ecological restoration), summarizes the tasks necessary to achieve it and the potential for emerging technologies to carry them out.
Drones, with tree recognition software, could rapidly provide GPS co-ordinates of native seed trees, in natural forest, to seed collectors or they might collect seeds autonomously, using robotic arms, suction tubes or rotating brushes. Drones are already being used to carry out aerial seeding. The need is to develop rapidly biodegradable “designer seed-bombs”, which protect seeds from desiccation with hydrogels, whilst also providing them with fertilizers, growth promoters and micro-organisms to promote rapid seedling establishment. Combined with plant recognition technology, drones might also be able to spray herbicides to control weeds, whilst avoiding killing trees and accurately deliver fertilizer around establishing tree seedlings. These processes could be fully automated, by recharging drone batteries with solar-powered inductive charging pads.
Monitoring forest canopy closure is already possible with drone-mounted sensors. Advances in plant recognition software will probably enable auto-monitoring of plant species recovery soon, whilst recovery of bird or mammal communities could be recorded by remote microphones and camera traps. Data from such devices could be transmitted via the telephone network or by using drones as “data mules”. Many of the above-mentioned technologies already exist, but to develop practical auto-restoration systems, they must be improved (e.g. longer battery life), made cheaper and more rugged, to operate for long periods in tropical climates. Intensive collaboration among ecologists and technologists, will be essential to achieve viable and cost-effective auto-restoration systems.
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