Yes, Thailand really has dropped tree seeds from aircraft to regrow forest. In 2013 the Royal Thai Air Force launched a five-year pilot in Phitsanulok province, flying over a damaged part of the Phu Mieng–Phu Thong Wildlife Sanctuary and releasing seed balls made from soil and the seeds of local trees. The aim was to turn degraded land into healthy green forest by 2017.
The phrase “dropping millions of trees” makes it sound like saplings rain from the sky. In practice, what falls is seeds wrapped in a protective ball of earth or clay. This guide explains how the method works, where it came from, what results have been reported, and where it fits in the fight against deforestation.
What Thailand actually did
The pilot was ordered by the then air force commander, ACM Prajin Juntong, and carried out by Aviation Division 46 in Phitsanulok together with departments of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The target was more than 5,000 rai of deteriorated forest, roughly 800 hectares, in Chat Trakan district.
The seeds came from native species, not imported trees: phayung (Siamese rosewood), makha mong and kabok, all hardy trees of Thai dry forests. Students helped roll the seed balls by hand before they were loaded into the aircraft. Using local species matters, because a tree adapted to the soil, rainfall and wildlife of the area has a far better chance of surviving than an exotic one.
The tree seed bombing in Thailand is one of the greatest examples of 'Conscious Entrepreneurs' or 'Spiritual Entrepreneurs' out there right
— Christopher Pinckley (@ChrisPinckley) May 11, 2016
The project caught the imagination of people far beyond Thailand. Social media posts in 2016 praised it as an example of creative environmental thinking, and videos of seeds pouring from planes spread widely.
The illustration above shows the basic idea: an aircraft flying low over open ground and releasing a stream of seeds. Real seed-ball drops are slower and more targeted than the drawing suggests, and pilots usually choose the start of the rainy season so that the balls soften and the seeds can sprout.
How seed bombing works
A seed ball, known in Japanese as nendo dango, is a small ball of clay, soil and sometimes compost with seeds inside. A common recipe uses about five parts clay to one part seed. The balls are dried for a day or two, which makes them hard enough to survive a drop.
The coating does three jobs. It hides the seeds from birds, rodents and insects that would otherwise eat them. It holds a little moisture and nutrients close to the seed. And it gives the seed weight, so it lands where it is aimed instead of drifting in the wind. When the rains arrive, the clay breaks down and the seedling can root straight into the ground.
Aircraft, helicopters and, more recently, drones can spread seeds over land that is too steep, remote or wet for planting crews. That speed is the main attraction: a plane can cover in hours what would take workers weeks on foot.
Seed bombing is a method for repairing deforested land.
And that means dropping *a lot* of seeds from the sky.
A short history: from clay balls to “tree bombs”
The modern seed ball is usually credited to the Japanese natural farming pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka, a plant scientist who revived the technique on the island of Shikoku during the Second World War, looking for ways to grow more food without taking land from rice. In 1973 the New York gardener Liz Christy and her Green Guerillas began tossing homemade “seed green-aides” onto vacant city lots, which helped launch the guerrilla gardening movement.
Planes entered the story much earlier. In the 1930s, aircraft scattered seeds over fire-damaged mountains near Honolulu. Those trials are often cited as a success, but the record shows they largely failed: the seeds hit the ground too gently to enter the soil, and so many were eaten that they fed a rodent boom. Aerial seeding of conifers worked better in Oregon after 1946, using surplus military planes.
The most famous industrial idea came in 1999, when Lockheed Martin and a Massachusetts company called Aerial Forestation proposed converting cargo planes once built to drop landmines so that they would drop saplings inside pointed biodegradable cones. The system was promoted as able to plant 900,000 young trees a day, with the Scottish mountains, part of Germany’s Black Forest and Egypt’s Sinai desert named as possible sites. The plan made headlines worldwide, but it was never rolled out at scale.
Does it work? Results and limits
Results from Thailand have been reported mostly through the media. A French environmental site wrote in 2019 that about 70% of the dropped seeds had germinated and taken root, with a final study expected in 2020. That figure has not been widely published in scientific literature, so it is best read as a promising early report rather than a settled result.
Forestry experience elsewhere gives a more cautious picture. Aerial seeding generally has a low yield compared with planting nursery-grown seedlings, which remains the more reliable method. Seeds need to reach bare mineral soil, so thick leaf litter or grass can stop them. Palatable seeds are eaten unless they are coated. Steep, smooth slopes can wash them away, and the species must suit the local climate. Fast-growing pioneer species that sprout easily on open ground tend to do best.
Common myths
- “Every seed becomes a tree.” Even a good germination rate is followed by heavy losses to drought, fire, grazing and competition.
- “Seed bombing can replace protecting old forest.” Mature forest stores far more carbon and wildlife than young regrowth. Stopping clearance comes first.
- “Any seed will do.” Dropping non-native species can create plantations or even invasive problems instead of a living forest.
Why Thailand needed new forest
Thailand lost forest fast in the twentieth century. Between 1945 and 1975, forest cover fell from about 61% to 34% of the country’s land, driven mainly by farm expansion, road building and logging, much of it illegal. After deadly floods and landslides in the south in 1988, the government revoked all logging licences in natural forests in January 1989.
Cover has since stabilised at around a third of the land: the Royal Forest Department reported 31.6% in 2019. Official plans aim for 40%, a target set as far back as 1975 and still not reached. Part of the remaining loss is linked to cash crops such as rubber and oil palm, which is why experts stress that seed bombing can only be one tool among many.
The bigger picture on global forests
Some older articles claimed that only 6.2 million of an original 16 million square kilometres of forest survive. That does not match current data. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, forests still cover about 4.14 billion hectares, roughly 32% of the world’s land, around a third less than before farming spread. The worrying part is the rate of change: gross deforestation was estimated at about 10.9 million hectares a year in 2015–2025.
Agriculture drives close to 90% of global deforestation, especially cropland and cattle pasture. Clearing and degrading forest releases roughly 12% of human carbon dioxide emissions, with estimates ranging from about 6% to 17%, so the often-repeated “15%” sits within that range but is not a precise figure.
Restoring land with native trees, whether by hand, by drone or from the air, helps rebuild soil, water cycles and habitat. It works best alongside the slower, less photogenic work of protecting standing forest.
What actually helps forests recover
- Protect what remains. Enforcing bans on illegal logging and land grabs prevents losses that no amount of planting can quickly replace.
- Use native, local seed. Thailand’s choice of phayung, makha mong and kabok is a good model.
- Match the method to the site. Aerial seeding suits large, remote or steep areas; nursery seedlings suit places people can reach.
- Involve local communities. People who live near a forest are its best guardians when they share in its benefits.
- Measure results. Counting surviving trees years later, not seeds dropped, shows whether a project worked.
Sources: Bangkok Post: Aerial seed balls to regenerate forest, L’info durable, July 2019, Wikipedia: Aerial seeding, Wikipedia: Seed bomb, Grist, September 1999: Lockheed tree bombs, Wikipedia: Deforestation in Thailand, Wikipedia: Deforestation (FAO figures), Anon HQ (original 2016 report).
Related:
Love it. Just hope it works as well as it sounds and the multinationals keep out and let it grow ... FOREVER!
ReplyDelete