Monitoring of reforestation projects has come a long way in the last few years, and the days of trudging through forest with a clipboard have (partially) been replaced with drones, hyper-accurate 2D maps, digital interpretations of vegetation health and photogrammetry.
africanDRONE was tasked with helping US-based organization WRI carry out a pilot project for drone-based monitoring of reforestated land in northern Malawi. The questions are simple: What is growing, and how big are the trees? Drones can help answer these with automated flight plans and digital tools.
africanDRONE first enlisted the help of Tadala Makuluni, a Malawian woman drone pilot and graduate of the African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA) based in the country. africanDRONE’s network of pilots stretches to almost every country on the continent, and we always take a hyperlocal approach to our work. Focusing on a pre-selected area of land that had just been reforested, which the local chief had agreed to protect (forest loss originally coming from charcoal production by local communities), we set off from the town of Mzusu every day for the hour-long drive on muddy roads to the project site.
Our task was to map an entire 250ha polygon at an extremely high resolution, avoiding the numerous mountains and outcroppings along the way. All this during the rainy season! We enlisted the help of local NGO Wells for Zoe, who provided us trucks, expertise and contacts to establish a base station for recharging, food and shelter during the rains. We faced numerous challenges, including internet loss, weather, terrain, although thankfully no snakes(!) were seen on the hillsides.
africanDRONE Co-Founders Christian Onyando and Johnny Miller were present to supervise the project, which we completed successfully in five days. The final data will be processed and annotated, compared with detailed maps and notes taken on the ground, and eventually used to develop a standard protocol for other impact organizations looking to use technology to assist with their operations.
Just like our drone camps, drone journalism initiatives and drone events like the African Drone Forum, we’re proud to be at the helm of this Africa-forward project using drone tech for good!