Technologies that save forests

Forests are the planet’s green gold. Despite this, global deforestation continues unabated: in the last year alone, the world lost a forested area equal to the size of Italy according to the World Resources Institute’s initiative Global Forest Watch (GFW). In 2017, 294,000 square kilometres of the world’s forest was wiped out and deforestation added 7.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, around 50% more than the emissions produced by the entire energy sector of the United States. The most fragile areas are obviously the tropical rainforests, from the Amazon forest to the Congo Basin.

 

Solutions

Associations, companies and startups are trying to reverse this dangerous trend. In Geneva, on 15th November, the Italian PEFC (Programme for endorsement of forest certification schemes) association, together with a team of innovators, presented Trace, a project which, through sensors on every tree, evaluates how the forest perceives climate change. Every tree was equipped with a   “Tree talker”, a device based on the Internet of Things that can provide a real-time monitoring network of the tree’s functions. The sensors measure different eco-physiological parameters, such as water flows, growth in diameter, quantity and quality of foliage, stability, respiration, health and mortality of trees in response to human and climatic factors. In addition, data analysis using machine learning algorithms and cloud computing enables the correlation of a large amount of data and the collection of personalized information. In conditions of fragility in which terrestrial ecosystems are affected by climate change, forest management and certification play an increasingly important role.

Using innovative tools to measure ecosystems’ ability to store carbon or their resilience to environmental changes is crucial to making decisions about improving the quality and profitability of forest management. The academic world is also looking for solutions to combat deforestation. The University of Oxford’s spinoff BioCarbon Engineering  has created a drone capable of planting 120 trees per minute and thus making reforestation of areas that are more difficult for people to reach faster, cheaper and more sustainable.

 

The major Brazilian project

In an attempt to save the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, US-based NGO Conservation International announced the largest tropical reforestation project in history, which will involve the planting of 73 million trees over the next six years. Conservation International will use a new planting method known as “muvuca”, in which hundreds of seeds of various species of native trees are scattered in every square metre of deforested land. Natural selection then allows the most suitable plants to survive and prosper. A study carried out by FAO revealed that over 90% of native tree species planted using the muvuca method germinate and are able to survive up to six months of drought. However, the entire process of protecting the Amazon rainforest could be challenged by Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro. The president has said that his country will not follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump’s United States and will remain in the Paris Agreement on climate, but only on the condition that Brasilia is given full sovereignty over the management of the forest.