Drone sows monkey puzzle seeds across 40 hectares of burned Patagonian forest
It is a trial by Argentina's Lanín National Park and the company ReForest Latam, working with Mapuche communities: a single drone seeded part of a pewen forest that burned in 2013 in a day and a half. It is too early to know how many trees will sprout; if it works, the project will scale up to 200 hectares in 2027.
Three hundred kilos of seeds went up the mountain on horseback. From a base camp there, between 15 and 19 October, a single drone seeded 40 hectares in a day and a half of pewen forest (Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree) that burned in 2013 at Ñorquinco, in Lanín National Park, Neuquén province, Argentina.
This is a trial, not yet the full restoration. According to Argentina’s National Parks Administration (APN), it is testing the technique, the logistics and the seed treatment before work begins on 200 hectares in 2027. Researchers counted how many seeds landed in fixed plots so they can later estimate how many seedlings take root per hectare.
A tree that takes centuries to come back alone
The pewen can live for more than 1,100 years and grow 50 metres tall. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List and appears in CITES Appendix I. For Mapuche communities it sits at the heart of their worldview.
The trouble is that it grows slowly and its nuts fall close to the parent tree. If fire kills the seed-bearing trees, the APN says, the forest would take centuries to recover on its own. The 2013 fire hit around 1,500 hectares of native forest at Ñorquinco.
The drone over the burned Ñorquinco hillside: the dead trunks left by the fire stand among living trees. Photo: courtesy of Lanín National Park and Reforest Latam.
Seeds with a shield against wildlife
ReForest Latam, a “triple impact” company specialising in restoration with biotechnology and drones, supplies the technology. The seeds come from local trees and are coated with biostimulants; the trial also tested a treatment to stop animals eating so many of them. The drone drops them precisely onto the spots most likely to germinate, in areas that are hard to reach on foot.
The work is shared with the Pewenche Zonal Council, the Ñorquinco Mapuche Community, the Pewen Protectors of Ñorquinco and Aigo, and researchers from Argentina’s CONICET science agency. A scientific committee led by Thomas Kitzberger (CONICET–INIBIOMA) decides what to restore, where and how.
The trial’s base camp, with the team, the drones and a horse. Photo: courtesy of Lanín National Park and Reforest Latam.
What has already been planted by hand
The drone seeding builds on work done since 2021 under the Pewen Project: a perimeter fence and the planting of 50,000 pewen and coihue trees. The APN will use the trial’s results to decide whether the technique can restore other parts of Patagonia.
Official images provided to Happy News of the Day by Lanín National Park (courtesy of Lanín National Park and Reforest Latam).
