Drones help reforest areas destroyed by rain

Drones can help reforest an area of 200 hectares — Photo: Globo Rural.

The São Paulo Forest Foundation, the Coastal Conservation Institute, Atlantic Environmental Consulting, and Ambipar are part of the initiative.

In São Sebastião, on the coast of São Paulo, drones drop six thousand seeds of 20 Brazilian species to reforest areas destroyed by the rains that occurred in February of this year. The devastated area is over 200 hectares. The replanting is expected to be completed by April, a period in which the equipment captures images to monitor the development of the trees.

The project cost about R$ 3.5 million. It began in November and was conceived by the São Paulo Forest Foundation, in partnership with the Coastal Conservation Institute (ICC), Atlantic Environmental Consulting, and Ambipar, an environmental management company that was responsible for creating a biocapsule that stored and fertilized the seed.

Everything in this initiative is recycled: the drone is made from ethanol residues, while the biocapsule is made from collagen reused from the pharmaceutical industry. Inside it, the seed is injected along with a biological product that acts as a soil conditioner, protecting and nourishing the seed for germination. The process is entirely organic and structured by researchers from Ambipar.

According to Gabriel Estevam, Corporate Director of Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI), the laboratory production capacity is 30 thousand biocapsules per day. Ambipar alone invested R$ 400 thousand in the São Sebastião project. For 2024, the plan is to double the production capacity.

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