A British engineering firm is seeking international backing to develop the first automated tree-planting drones in order to help counter deforestation across the world. BioCarbon Engineering, an Oxford-based start-up company , believes drones may soon have the potential to plant around one billion trees per year, according to Horticulture Week.

Addressing a recent UN Solutions Summit in New York, company engineer Susan Graham said the world is currently experiencing a net loss of six billion trees every year.

Should the plan go ahead, the specially developed fixed -wing drones will take detailed images of a particular area to tell the company about its nutrients, biodiversity and topology .

“We then churn that data through an algorithm to generate a precision planting pattern, which we upload into our quadcopter,” said Graham.

“This flies at 2-3m above the ground and fires a biodegradable seed pod at each position, which contains all the nutrients for healthy tree growth.”