Name: How drones could help reforest the worlds green lungs
Uploaded: 2025-11-20T18:13:46.885Z
Duration: 3 min 3 s
Description: Close to the COP30 venue in Belem, Brazil, degraded farmland is transformed back into thriving ecosystems. French start-up MORFO uses drones to plant native seeds, restoring thousands of hectares of Amazon forest.

Close to the COP30 venue in Belem, Brazil, degraded farmland is transformed back into thriving ecosystems. French start-up MORFO uses drones to plant native seeds, restoring thousands of hectares of Amazon forest.

Belém

A startup named Morpho is utilizing drones to reforest large areas in the Amazon, significantly increasing the speed and reach of restoration compared to traditional manual methods. The drones distribute seed balls containing native species, nutrients, and moisture, allowing for efficient replanting even in remote or inaccessible locations.

In 2024, the Amazon lost approximately 1.7 million hectares of forest, much of it due to illegal logging. Morpho uses advanced data analysis and artificial intelligence to select suitable plants for each site and offers reforestation-based carbon credits to companies and governments. The company has launched a 20,000-hectare reforestation program near Belém and plans to expand operations to Western Africa and Southeast Asia.

How drones could help reforest the world's green lungs

A small test field not far from the climate conference in Belém, Brazil. This is what it looked like a few months ago, rock-hard soil compacted by livestock farming. The area was replanted using a drone in just a few minutes. Today it looks like this, grass, bushes, small trees, the area is thriving. High-tech reforestation, this is how startup Morpho plans to regenerate huge areas first in the Amazon. One drone can spread about 50 hectares a day. It means two people, one drone, it's about 1,000 hectares a month. It's a huge gap when you compare it to the traditional way of doing restoration. Usually workers can seed up to a hectare per day, says Gregory Maitre. The drones can be used to reforest areas that are far away and difficult to access. Small balls containing only native seeds, mixed with nutrients and moisture, are scattered so that as many as possible can germinate and rebuild the forest ecosystem. Morpho isn't the only company with this approach. Globally, dozens of firms are betting on drone technology for reforestation. So that's exactly what we do, this cover for the soil, this one for the shade and those ones that are the actual durable trees that will grow up and as I told you in five years it will be higher than this one and this one will start exiting the system. In 2024 alone, about 1.7 million hectares of forest were lost in the Amazon. Much of it was illegally cut down. Morpho says it determines which plants are suitable for which areas with the help of drone images, soil samples and special data analyses, including artificial intelligence. Customers include mine operators who are subject to reforestation requirements and cities like Rio de Janeiro. The company also provides reforestation-based carbon credits, sold to companies and countries around the world to enable them to offset some of their emissions. That is still a non-mature market, but also I think that everybody now understands that we have to do something to provide reforestation and to act, to have more forests, to limit climate change. Those are financial tools that can really remunerate people that will build up forests. Morpho just kicked off a reforestation programme of 20,000 hectares just hours away from Belém. For now the company is focusing on Brazil, but they aim to reach out to new markets in Western Africa and Southeast Asia in the future.

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