Over 18,000 ‘seed balls’ dropped by drones in Mount Kalatungan to aid reforestation
At least 18,389 “seed balls” were dropped within the Mt. Kalatungan range as part of the reforestation project in Bukidnon.
According to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) provincial office, these seed balls contain seeds from endemic trees coated with soil and organic manures in order to support their germination and growth.
The seed balls were loaded onto and dispersed by drones from May up to July 2023. The seed balls were dropped within a 4-hectare patch within the Mt. Kalatungan range, which includes an ancestral domain of the Manobo – Talaandig group led by Datu Erio Inahan.
The seeds used for the seed balls came from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, and the Indigenous Peoples of Mt. Kalatungan.
Aerial monitoring efforts will be done quarterly by a startup company that partnered with the DOST and that operated the drone technology used for the said reforestation effort.
