The Solution of Surplus - Aerial tree seeding for lower cost landscape scale tropical forest restoration.

Scouting for potential aerial seeding areas - S.W. Kenya.

Concept

A surplus of indigenous hardwood timber producing forests and woodlands that will provide the resources for long term sustainable forest products industries. 

Summary

Controlled aerial tree seeding for low cost landscape scale reafforestation to provide a surplus of high value timber hardwood trees over the next 5-10 decades that could drive a long term high value forest products industry. 

Who will take these actions?

Relevant Govt. Agencies (Forestry Departments, The National Air Force, Universities, Private and NGO investors etc.). Actions eventually will be handed over fully to the Forestry Departments and other allied civil society associations.  

What are other key benefits?

- A vast investment in landscape scale forest restoration (millions of acres) at a very marginal cost. (as low as $0.01c per tree perhaps) while creating many long term employment opportunities. 

- Kickstarting a National indigenous hardwood tree seed growing and collecting industry loosely based on the existing coffee industry that could provide 'green collar' jobs to thousands of people regionally. 

- By piggybacking various agro-economic aerial imaging platforms, relevant data can also be collected for the National Govt. while seeding forests. 

What are the proposal’s costs?

Given the scale of landscape forest restoration - aerial seeding, especially when automated can reduce the costs of planting more than 100 million trees in tropical areas by more than 60% as compared to the current traditional methods.

Timeline

5-15 years - Piloting and perfecting aerial manual and autonomous tree seeding and initiation of a National tree seed collection program. 

15-50 years - Scaling up the program regionally and perfecting woodlands management and value chain to point of sale. 

50-100+ years - Sustainable indigenous hardwood forest by-products industries that are contributing to positive economic, environmental and social stability.  

Related proposals

''At the recent UN Climate Summit in New York, businesses and governments pledged to “speed up restoration” so that 350 m hectares of degraded forestland can be converted back into forest by the end of the next decade – an area greater than the whole of India. This would have huge benefits for the climate, by storing carbon and take pressure off primary forests.” But how could this be achieved, on such a vast scale, so quickly?''

http://www.futureterrains.org/robots-revive-rainforests-guest-blog-stephen-elliott-forru-thailand/

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/geoengineering/llS-vGQkZmE/MFxXv-7sQCAJ

References

http://reskqu.blogspot.co.ke/2008/12/scorched-earth-charcoal-kiln-re.html

https://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/ICRAF-SEI-2014-techbrief-Sustainable-charcoal.pdf