
Automated Reforrestation - Pica_soO
I recently saw a deforrestation map and wondered- if you can gather the data by machine- is there a way to reforest aka plant grass, trees and reconquer the dessert left behind? Is this done already somewhere? How can one contribute to this sort of project?
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kevinstubbs
It's an absolutely feasible project with a big enough budget. I'm not very
familiar with the robotics industry, but I'd be pretty surprised if you can
get off the shelf robots to do what you want. If that's true, it would be a
pretty massive undertaking to create the bespoke machines and AI necessary for
automated reforestation. Even getting to the point of being able to replant in
land that is all dirt would take quite a lot of effort, and that is
essentially what some agricultural tech companies are doing. But deforested
land has all kind of artifacts from what used to be there, that your
reforesting machines will have to work their way around. It would take quite
an investment to make the leap between what ag tech is doing with pristine
fields to what's left behind during deforestation.

For an example, take a look at this image which was the first result in Google
images. It's a "cleared" forest in Sumatra, Indonesia.

[http://assets.worldwildlife.org/photos/983/images/story_full...](http://assets.worldwildlife.org/photos/983/images/story_full_width/deforestation-
causes-HI_104236.jpg)

