Social, economic and legal issues of automated forest restoration
ABSTRACT: Practitioners often concentrate most on the technical aspects of forest restoration and less on the social aspects, whilst often ignoring legal aspects. Social considerations include involving all stakeholders in planning, tree plant-ing or tending natural regeneration, and monitoring. The most important legal considerations are usually concerned with land tenure. Automation will most probably further complicate both social and legal aspects of forest restoration. Social acceptability of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the other technologies, described throughout this volume, will undoubtedly be subject to much debate. Communities may well develop their own “no fly zones” such as sacred sites etc. Use of UAVs is subject to, and may be restricted by, a rapidly growing number of new regulations, particularly those focussing on the critical issues of safety and personal privacy. Social norms and laws vary widely among countries and are rapidly evolving. Therefore, this review highlights just some of the currently emerging socio-economic and legal issues that may impact the implement-ation of automated forest restoration (AFR). Those proposing novel AFR methods, should consider such issues simultaneously with the development of new technologies, so that AFR projects can be planned and implemented with minimal legal problems and social disruption.