Ecosystem restoration

Ecosystem restoration rebuilds degraded land — reforesting burnt and arid landscapes, restoring grasslands, deserts, wetlands and mine sites, and locking carbon in restored biomass and soils. Roughly two billion hectares of land are degraded globally, and wildfire is accelerating loss: the US loses ~70,000 wildfires a year (70M acres over the last decade) and Canada burned a record 18.5 million hectares in 2023. The industry now blends drone-based aerial seeding, native-seed seed banks, irrigation-free Cocoon planting and biomass-burial carbon removal, funded by carbon credits, corporate ESG budgets and public programs like China’s 三北 (Three-North) shelterbelt and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

The key directions of ecosystem restoration are:

1. Post-fire reforestation & biomass burial (Post-Fire Reforestation): drone- and hand-planting burn zones plus biomass-burial CDR — Mast’s MT1 Montana vault sequestered 4,500+ t of fire-killed trees into 4,277 Puro.earth credits.
2. Native-seed & arid-land reforestation (Native-Seed Reforestation): modular seed banks and Cocoon planting in harsh soils — Terraformation’s seed banks store up to 5M seeds; Land Life’s Cocoon is irrigation-free for the first year.
3. Drone-based restoration & monitoring (Drone Restoration): aerial seeding + AI/MRV — Dendra seeds up to 44 ha/day; Flash Forest’s pods plant ~50,000 trees/day with its Forestry Intelligence Service census-level monitoring.
4. Grassland / desert / mine restoration (Grassland & Mine Restoration): state-led ecological engineering — Mengcao’s 5M-mu 三北 footprint and 776 grass-seed patents anchor China’s grassland/desert work.

Sectoral value chain#

[site assessment] ──> [seed & nursery] ──> [site prep] ──> [planting / deployment]
                              │
                  (drone / hand / Cocoon / marine ranch)
                              │
                              ▼
[carbon credits] <─── [monitoring & MRV] <─────┘

Value chain levels#

Cross-cutting technologies of the sector:

• Drone aerial seeding + AI (Drone Aerial Seeding): fleets firing pre-germinated seed pods at >20 seeds/sec with AI-mapped flight lines.
• Biomass-burial CDR (BiCRS): clay-lined vaults bury dead trees, monitored for >100 years and issued as durable Puro.earth credits.
• Irrigation-free Cocoon (Cocoon Planting): a 25 L donut reservoir wicks water to roots for 6–8 weeks, shielding seedlings for a year without irrigation.

The stack rests on three platforms: drone-based aerial seeding + AI MRV, native-seed/Cocoon arid reforestation, and biomass-burial CDR.

1. Drone aerial seeding + AI MRV (Drone Aerial Seeding):
   • fleets of UAVs fire pre-germinated seed pods (seed + water + nutrients + fungi) into AI-mapped microsites, then LiDAR/multispectral monitoring tracks survival at census level.
   • case: Dendra’s 44 ha/day and Flash Forest’s ~50,000 pods/day + Forestry Intelligence Service (census-level stem ID by species/height).
2. Native-seed & Cocoon irrigation-free planting (Cocoon Planting):
   • modular seed banks and biodegradable Cocoon reservoirs enable native-species reforestation in arid, harsh soils without irrigation in the first year.
   • case: Terraformation’s 5M-seed banks and Land Life’s patented Cocoon (95% seedling protection, 25 L reservoir, 6–8 week wick irrigation).
3. Biomass-burial CDR (BiCRS):
   • fire-killed or waste trees are buried in clay-lined, sensor-monitored vaults that prevent decay and issue durable removal credits under Puro.earth methodology.
   • case: Mast’s MT1 Montana vault (4,500+ t biomass, 4,277 credits, BeZero “A”), targeting a 150,000 t/yr biomass pipeline.