Extreme wildfires call for more efficient reforestation plans

AUGUST: HIGH TEMPERATURES, STORMS AND OTHER WEATHER CHANGES PUT SPANISH FORESTS AT RISK

• Bubión (Granada), Marchagaz and Plasencia (Extremadura), Iznallón Parque del Gerês-Xurés (Galicia-Portugal), Vall de Gallinera (Comunidad Valenciana), Monterrei (Galicia), Cualedro (Galicia), Robledo de Chavela (Madrid) (Extremadura), are some of the areas burned so far in August.
• Spain is the second EU country -only behind Portugal- most affected by forest fires. With an annual average of about 100,000 hectares burned.
• The CO2Revolution project, based on artificial intelligence techniques in forestry engineering, provides a new and revolutionary reforestation system based on selective planting with drones and intelligent seeds.
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Fire management experts have been announcing for years that the climate crisis is leading to the emergence of a new type of forest fire. A new generation fire, much more virulent, with greater energy intensity and therefore more devastating. According to WWF’s “Burning the Mediterranean” report (2019), Spain is the second EU country -only behind Portugal- most affected by forest fires. With an annual average of about 100,000 hectares burned, some studies indicate that currently only 3% of the area that remains burned after the passage of the flames is being recovered.

Faced with this situation and the risk of high temperatures, computer and forestry engineers from CO2 Revolution, a company founded for the recovery of forests and their ecosystem, continue to evolve their techniques in artificial intelligence in the service of biodiversity. It is a challenge to face, and for which this project was born, in the face of the threat of climate mega-fires, capable of devastating thousands of hectares of forest in just a few hours, affecting inhabited areas and putting thousands of people at risk.

These fires, also called sixth generation fires, “are a type of fire that especially threatens the countries of southern Europe, where the decrease in rainfall, together with the increase in average temperatures, evapotranspiration and soil dryness is giving rise to a highly flammable forest environment, a vegetal powder keg ready to ignite at the slightest imprudence”, says Juan Carlos Sesma, founder and director of CO2 Revolution.

When temperatures soar in much of Spain up to 45 degrees in some places and situations occur that give rise to the alarming “fire triad” (more than 30 degrees, wind above 30 km / h and less than 30% humidity) it is necessary to strengthen the alerts and extend the measures of prudence.

Beyond activating risk prevention protocols for the population and avoiding the ecological disaster and the high loss of biodiversity generated by a mega-fire, ecologists, forestry engineers and experts in fire management highlight the need to implement a national forest regeneration plan to recover the wooded area devastated by this type of catastrophe.

In view of this situation, it is necessary to undertake resolute and effective reforestation measures, which will speed up the replacement of burned forests with native species and stimulate the recovery of lost biodiversity. To this end, the CO2Revolution project, based on the application of artificial intelligence techniques to forestry engineering and the restitution of forest ecosystems, provides a new and revolutionary system based on selective planting with drones, which is much more profitable and sustainable.

“If one person can reforest about one hectare in two weeks of work, with a drone we can reforest a hundred hectares in a single day. Time and cost efficiency is guaranteed: no matter how rough the terrain is, we can carry out the regeneration with the right species, even in the most remote and difficult to access places, and all this in a much more efficient way and at a much lower cost,” says Juan Carlos Sesma.

For this, CO2 Revolution uses intelligent ‘iSeed’ seeds, embedded in a biodegradable capsule that protects them, ensuring maximum effectiveness in the planting process. These are pre-germinated seeds that also have super components to enhance germination and prevent the growth of weeds.

Planting is achieved with drones that have tanks that can hold up to 2,500 seeds, launching them from the air to cover larger areas of land, which also allows them to be planted in areas that are difficult to access.