The world is aiming to restore natural forests and using modern technologies allows for more efficient reforestation processes. These three startups are employing cutting-edge technologies to speed up forest restoration methods. They are also shortlisted by the World Economic Forum for their UpLink Trillion Trees project.
The UpLink Trillion Trees project aims to help the conservation of existing forests, restoration of forest ecosystems and reforestation in suitable lands. It aims to connect a global community of innovators that develop potential solutions to the one trillion trees goal.
The project is also supporting the 1t.org global reforestation initiative of the World Economic Forum, launched at Davos 2020 to grow 1 trillion trees by 2030 in an effort to mitigate climate change.
GainForest Reforestation Initiative
GainForest is an international nonprofit association based in Zurich that uses AI to measure and reward sustainable nature stewardship. Its algorithms analyze data from satellites, drones, and field monitoring to measure whether the land is maintained in a sustainable way.
They give farmers that usually cut down the trees in their land to make room for cattle and crops, a financial reward for preserving and restoring the ecosystem. A smart contracts system automatically unlocks donations to farmers and forest communities when restoration milestones are reached.
“We wanted to help the UN come up with a new way of making the distribution of their funds more performance oriented,” said David Dao, founder of GainForest.
Cultivo
Cultivo is a Calfornia-based startup that aims to to remove the level of complexities related to land conservation. The startup captures and organizes data to make it more manageable in order to help restoration and conservation efforts.
It also provides financing mechanisms that allow institutions and corporations to invest in sustainable nature-based projects such as regenerative grazing or planting trees.
Cultivo’s goal is to deploy $1 billion of investment into nature. That is expected to translate into 3.5 million hectares of land being restored although the founder is confident it will be surpassed.
Farm-Trace
Farm-Trace is a mobile and web platform created by a Canadian not-for-profit that combines mobile, satellite and machine learning data. It makes measurements and reporting of reforestation outcomes.
It reports and tracks on zero deforestation, forest cover, carbon stored over time, and tree planting activities. Its goal is to help farmers measure, manage and report on their sustainability impact.
Forest conservation is attracting interest from enterpreneurs to develop solutions for more rapid scaling. More information about these startups can be found on the World Economic Forum website.
