🔎 What’s going on?
Earlier this month, Dendra systems, an ecosystem restoration startup company announced that it has raised Series A funding worth $10million. The funding will enable Dendra to scale their operations to global markets.
🌳 What does this mean?
Desertification or land degradation (when the land no longer supports biodiverse ecosystems) is increasingly becoming the norm due to the effects of climate change. Dendra uses ecology driven data science, artificial intelligence and drone technology to help reverse land degradation by restoring whole ecosystems.
Their patented technology uses ultra high-resolution data capture and ecology-trained artificial intelligence to map and assess degraded land. This means that every plant and animal on the land is captured in the survey. Using this data, Dendra creates precise restoration plans for every site's unique ecological conditions. Finally, utilizing their customized drones, Dendra plants120 seeds a minute per drone at scale—150 times faster than traditional manual planting methods.
❓Why should I care?
Desertification or land degradation is responsible for 23% of Greenhouse Gas emissions. The solution - ecosystem restoration. Often referred to as the Lungs of the Earth, forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. Forests are critical in addressing the impacts of climate change as they store carbon in their leaves, branches, barks, stem, and roots, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
A 2015 study published in Nature, estimated that each year we cut down approximately 15 billion trees. Despite admirable and concerted effort by nations, organisations and citizens to replant trees, every year we manage to re-plant only 9 billion trees, leaving a net loss of 6 billion trees.
Dendra’s restoration approach is unique because they focus on restoring whole biodiverse ecosystems, rather than just create a monoculture of trees.
🚦Where do we need to be?
According to Dendra, we need to restore 2 billion hectares of land and ideally, we should aim to plant a trillion trees (1000 billion). There are many benefits to large-scale ecosystem restoration – one of the key benefits is that trees sequester carbon. According to Plant-for-the-Planet, each tree sequesters 10 kg of CO2 per year. Approximately, half the dry weight of a tree’s biomass is carbon. Trees store carbon in their leaves, branches, stems, bark and roots. It’s also important to note, that a growing tree captures more carbon - for example, in a 100-year project, 80% of sequestration would happen in the first 30 years. Inspiringly, Plant-for-the-Planet has now taken up the challenge to plant a trillion trees.
👤 What can I do about it?
If you’re a child aged between 0 to 16 or you’re a parent, then look no further for inspiration than Felix Finkbeiner and then support the children’s initiative Plant for the Planet.
As an individual, you can use an online search engine like ecoasia – they use their profits to plant trees or if you love to shop, then support brands that plant trees for every product sold, for e.g. Tentree, WeWood.
If you’re a business leader or work for a company, no matter the size, encourage your business to partner with organisations to partner trees on their behalf, such as the Woodland Trust, Trees for the Future, The Eden Projects, The Nature Conservancy,
If you’re a savvy investor then invest in an entirely new asset class – forests, yes it’s a thing! Just ask your financial advisor on how to invest in forests through purchasing woodlands, or buying shares through ETFs. And remember, that you always preserve capital by leaving trees in the ground! 😉
If you represent a nation through a government position, then break records such as India, Pakistan, China, and make pledges like we have in England.
Related: Tree planting app could tackle the climate crisis