New seed-firing drones are planting 40,000 trees every day to fight deforestation
In comparison to traditional methodologies, they are not only 25 times faster, but 80 per cent cheaper, according to developer AirSeed Technologies.
Forests absorb carbon, shelter wildlife, and anchor watersheds — yet billions of trees have been lost to logging and land conversion. This archive tracks the science, policy, and community efforts driving reforestation forward, from Indigenous-led land restoration to large-scale planting programs showing measurable results.
In comparison to traditional methodologies, they are not only 25 times faster, but 80 per cent cheaper, according to developer AirSeed Technologies.
In 2018, Burundi launched a vast national reforestation program to boost the country’s dwindling forest cover, which will run until 2025.
This is a precedent-setting case in the country’s management of forests, representing the first time an area will be declared protected at the request of the resident community.
Scotland’s reforestation story just keeps growing: tree cover has tripled over the past century, climbing from under 6 percent of the country’s land to roughly 18 percent today. That’s close to forest levels not seen since medieval times. Behind the numbers are decades of work by government agencies, private landowners, and rewilding groups like Trees for Life, who’ve been steadily replacing fast-growing conifer plantations with native species like Scots pine, birch, and oak. Public enthusiasm is striking too — around 80 percent of Scots backed Highland reforestation in a 2021 survey. Scotland’s recovery is a hopeful reminder that landscapes stripped bare over centuries can begin healing within a single lifetime, when communities decide they want them back.
The project has helped lift the Tamazula municipality, where the four communities are located, off the state’s poverty list, raise their income above the minimum wage and contain narcotrafficking.
Through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, and others will plant one tree for every piece of indoor wood furniture sold.
14,000 square-miles of new forest will go up every year, particularly in drought-prone regions of the North and West.
The countries who signed the pledge – including Canada, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the U.S. and the U.K. – cover around 85% of the world’s forests.
The goal is to create a legal environment in which at least 1% of Mongolia’s GDP to be spent annually on combating climate change and desertification, and on increasing environmentally friendly and green facilities.
The One Trillion Trees Pledge is part of the 24-hour Global Citizen Live event today to “defend the planet and defeat poverty” and is meant to achieve net-negative carbon goals and combat climate change.