For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by mega environmental and ecological restoration projects, such as the restoration of the Loess Plateau in China outlined in the documentary “Hope in a Changing Climate”.

Israel is no stranger to the concept of Ecosystem Restoration (through the work of the JNF-KKL, etc.), but the scale of this effort is mind-boggling, with an area size of Belgium being restored in roughly 15 years.

Israel in this century no longer has the labour to tackle projects on this scale, unless the process can be mechanised and automated to a very large extent (perhaps along the lines I’ve suggested elsewhere regarding a proposed Billion Tree Campaign for Israel).

“The use of satellite mapping and GPS technology to inventory Israel’s existing forest assets, and identify and accurately plot the areas to be planted, with access roads and firebreaks present from day one.”

“Inventing or perfecting automated tree planting all-terrain vehicles capable of handling the entire process of planting seedlings, including digging the hole, composting, placing the seedling, filling the hole and compacting the soil and watering the seedling.  The vehicles should ideally navigate by means of GPS linked to a forestry management system that would select the correct mix, spacing and proportion of tree species to achieve the region’s climax vegetation within a single generation.”

If you have access to cable/satellite TV, please watch “Hope In A Changing Climate”, or watch it online using the links below (In SA, it was screened as a BBC/Earth Report insert.)

I collected a few of the most relevant links in this ShareTabs group, or you can just Google “Hope In A Changing Climate” (with or without quotes).