CHALLENGE
Automatic Tree Plantation System / Reforestation
$1 MILLION (Prize amount to be confirmed. Announcement expected for next year)
Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Reforestation can be used to undo and rectify the effects of deforestation and improve the quality of human life by absorbing pollution and dust from the air, rebuilding natural habitats and ecosystems, mitigating global warming via biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and harvesting for resources, particularly timber, but also non-timber forest products.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, significant attention has been given to reforestation as a technique for mitigating climate change as one of the best methods to do it. To this end, the international community has agreed on Sustainable Development Goal 15, which promotes implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, stop deforestation, restore degraded forests and increase afforestation and reforestation.
Though net loss of forest area has decreased substantially since 1990, the world is unlikely to achieve the target set forth in the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests to increase forest area by 3 percent by 2030. In absolute terms, the global forest area decreased by 178 million hectares between 1990 and 2020, which is an area about the size of Libya.
We must stop this trend and reforestation must not only replace trees that were felled but create new forest areas, including allowing biodiversity.
