We Found a New Way to Create a Forest

This forest is full of hidden technology. Microphones, growth sensors, drones, cameras, and all of it is helping forests to grow back all over the world. Okay, wait. You might be wondering, since when do we need all of this tech to grow a forest? Shouldn't it be enough to just, you know, plant some trees? Well, it's not that easy. For years, global reforestation has been plagued by fraud, carelessness, and even fake tree planting, leaving behind so-called phantom forests. In some projects, over 90% of planted trees die in the first year alone. But now a team of scientists, environmentalists, and tech nerds want to flip those numbers upside down. So we sent Rishala to Lake Victoria to find out how local know-how and cutting-edge technology is making tree planting much more efficient and to help turn this huge plot of empty land back into the forest it once was. We're Planet Wild. Welcome to Mission 39. We're traveling to the heart of Africa. I mean, literally, we're right on the equator. Look at this. Zero, zero, zero, one. Zero, zero, zero. Oh my goodness. Literally on the equator. This bumpy road is taking us straight to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in all of Africa, covering an area larger than some countries and is even the main water source of the Nile. For the short time that we were standing at the edge of Lake Victoria, we saw countless birds. I saw egrets. I saw a kite. I saw lapwings, pied kingfishers, hammerkops. We saw a freaking forest cobra swimming towards us. There's hippos. There's crocodiles. All that is in that lake. And right next to the lake, up on the hills, there is Old Bonjoge, a small town with some of the friendliest people you'll meet, surrounded by beautiful nature and a rather peculiar phenomena. The locals here claim that the rocks are growing. We'll get to that in a moment. Old Bonjoge is special for a couple of things. My favourite, the people. Also, I think the bird life is very special as well. This is Flora from Earthlungs and she's dedicated her life to protecting this place. And the bird life she's talking about? Well, this place used to have a lot more birds. And believe it or not, their disappearance here has to do with the growing rocks the locals talk about. Let me explain. What we're seeing here isn't some supernatural phenomenon. It's caused by deforestation. Without the trees stabilising the soil, the ground became unstable. So when it rains, the soil washes away, actually exposing the stones. They're not growing. The ground is disappearing. But that's not the worst part. As the rain rushes downhill, it turns into dangerous flash floods that are threatening lives and destroying the infrastructure people depend on. Just before we arrived, a bridge was swept away by the water. That over there is where the solid bridge that was built for this community was. And it was washed away in the flood. That means that everyone had to struggle to get across to the other side. And now, if you look down at this temporary bridge, it's a little dangerous. And finally, because a lot of deforested land has been transformed into farms, these floods are carrying fertilisers and chemicals straight into the streams that lead to Lake Victoria, which causes this. This here is the invasive water hyacinth. The agricultural chemicals from the farms supercharge its growth, creating a thick green carpet over the surface of the lake that suffocates the fish and destroys the lake's ecosystem. So in the end, removing trees is not just destroying the habitat of birds and other animals. It directly impacts the people and the livelihoods they depend on. But if all this happened by removing trees, what happens if we bring them back? So let's replant some trees. The solution is actually super easy. All we need to do is to plant all the trees back as fast as possible and then everything will go back to normal. What is she doing? We planted like 50 trees in about one minute. Nice. Trish, is that you? What are you up to? I'm planting some seedlings. Well, that's not the way to do it. What are you doing? Look at all the bags. Sorry, I laughed. You might have seen videos like this before. Hopefully not as manic as I was planting. But well-intentioned tree planting projects that are planting trees to save the world. Sounds great, right? Well, I wish it was that simple. The thing is, if we only care about planting trees and not about the long term, we end up with so-called phantom forests. Areas recorded on paper as reforested. But in reality, there are no trees. For example, in 2012, the Philippines set a world record by planting one million mangroves in just one hour. But they planted in the wrong place with zero long-term maintenance. A study found that only 2% of those seedlings survived. And the thing is, each time one of those fails, it makes it more difficult to convince people that tree planting can genuinely help climate change. But it doesn't have to be this way. Here, every tree is treated as a hope for the future. That's why this forest is full of technology. It's only four years old. But because of the technology, it's been able to thrive and flourish. We're partnering with Veritree. They use a super smart technological system to ensure that trees actually survive. In fact, they've already successfully planted and verified over 114 million trees across the globe. I just now realized that Veritree is like verified trees. Yeah, it's a good name, huh? This is Neda, a product manager at Veritree and an absolute data powerhouse. With a background at NASA and a master's in forestry, she's the driving force ensuring that every single seedling is tracked and verified. So really, it's like a cycle. The more we plant trees and provide transparent data, the more investors want to fund projects and the more of that communities are impacted that are actually doing the restoration on the ground. So this is how it works. Step one, establish our baseline. The first thing we need to do is send up the drone to get the lay of the land. This is a LiDAR drone. It's a laser-based scanning system that maps the exact shape and height of the land and vegetation in 3D at select sites. With LiDAR, we build a digital terrain model and a digital surface model. So we could look at the biomass and kind of build a model for what the top of the canopy looks like. We combine this baseline with local expertise and other environmental data to figure out the best place to start. That takes us to step two. And that's where Flora comes in. So this is how you do it. This already has nutrients. Create some space. Give it a nice bed in there like that. Ensure it's compacted. And then I speak life. May your roots be strong, that you may grow tall. Proper tree planting is done with care and consideration. Earthlungs and berry tree have already reforested 600 hectares of Obonjoke. Now we're working towards a further 1,200. And the Planet Wild community is funding 80,000 new trees to populate this new forest. But let's remember, most of the problems with failed tree planting projects happens after the planting. So for step three, we're going to install the sensors. First, we need to know how the trees are growing. That's a dendrometer. It measures the tree health, so the speed at which the tree grows. Ah, okay. So it captures height? Uh, speed. So it measures the core as it increases in diameter and it does it by measuring the water inside the tree. Yeah. And once the trees are back, we need to know exactly how the biodiversity is growing. And that's where this little box comes in. This is our bioacoustic sensor. It measures audio at the site. We take the data from the sensor, put it into a machine learning algorithm, and it outputs the species that were detected. The data allows us to know exactly which birds return to the forest and how their population is changing over longer periods. And lastly, we're using trail cameras to capture the comeback in action. Because when the big mammals return, it's undeniable proof this place is alive again. And only then is a tree planting project really successful. So the Planet Wild community isn't just funding the planting. We are fully funding the advanced monitoring and tech needed to protect it for years to come. Unlike traditional projects with high mortality rates, the EarthLands team is conducting rigorous survival checks at the one, two, and three-year marks. If the data shows trees are dying, they document the exact methodology to improve for the next season. And during the heavy rains, they go back into the forest to refill the gaps with new seedlings, or even swapping to more resilient species if the soil is struggling. Right now, 70 to 80% of their trees are surviving the crucial first three years. And this is what that looks like. One year. Two years. Three years. Four years old. Look at that! And eventually, Obonjoge will look like this. This is the end goal. It's really satisfying to see the forest returning. But of course, we need to make sure it isn't just cut down again. And this is the most beautiful part about the project. Because long-term protection isn't just about data. It's about people. It's not just about counting trees. It's not just about mapping trees. If you're not empowering the communities who live on the hill, then everything that you're doing down here is a waste of time. Earthlungs directly employs 50 local staff members that work alongside Kenyan Forest Service Rangers. This helps reduce pressure on the forest by offering alternative sources of income. Think about the families. That's about 50 families given a sustainable meal every single day because of our forestation activities here. Parents can now afford education. Think about health. You're eating healthier. You're drinking cleaner water. It's through trees that we survive. It's through trees that we're able to breathe air. If our focus shifts in that direction, then for sure we have a better life. It's just beautiful to see how this project is connecting the health of the forest to the health of the community. Once the forest has matured enough, it will help protect the area from floods, which in turn will protect critical infrastructure and even further down help to keep Lake Victoria healthy. A quite literal and beautiful example of the positive downstream effects that rewilding can have. And all of it is made possible by our Planet Wild members. So if you want to help fund incredible projects just like this one and be part of restoring nature every single month, consider joining us as a backer. There's a link down in the description. Thank you all for watching. Over and out.