Dubai based fuel delivery company CAFU is doing their part to help save the environment. The company announced their plan to plant one million Ghaf trees in the United Arab Emirates. The ambitious project will be implemented using custom-built drones and AI technology. The result could have great implications for the future of climate change solutions around the world.
On January 9th of this year, CAFU announced the project on all of their social media platforms, with the announcement video including footage of the company’s preliminary trial using the drone technology to plant seeds in Sharjah.
CAFU is an on-demand fuel-delivery application operating in Ajman, Dubai, and Sharjah in the UAE. The app functions by locating the user, allowing them to select the type of vehicle and the time of fuel delivery. Inspired by recent issues related to climate change, the company has expanded their operations to custom build drones in order to execute the project.
“When I first witnessed the devastating impact of wildfires across the world, I wondered whether there were ways to leverage our technology to tackle this problem. With climate change already a reality, we believe that as a business we have an increased responsibility to play a role in delivering solutions.”
Rashid Al Ghurair
Founder & CEO, CAFU
Rashid Al Ghurair, founder and CEO of CAFU, discussed the need for this kind of project in this current day and age: “When I first witnessed the devastating impact of wildfires across the world, I wondered whether there were ways to leverage our technology to tackle this problem. With climate change already a reality, we believe that as a business we have an increased responsibility to play a role in delivering solutions.” Ghaf trees, the national tree of the UAE, will be planted in order to reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere, with the average person producing 15.7 tonnes of CO2 per year in the populous city of Dubai. The trees also require very little water and maintenance, while still being able to absorb over 34kg of CO2 per year.
With the current waves of wildfires and other global climate problems sweeping the globe, drone technology may be a way to combat some of these issues. CAFU will use drones that can scan large areas for water using AI technology and then drop the Ghaf seeds from the air and onto the ground. This same operation, if done by humans on the ground, would take roughly two and a half months. In an experimental trial conducted in December 2019, 4,000 seeds were planted by said drones in the emirate of Sharjah. The dedicated area will be monitored and observed to see preliminary results of the project before embarking on the program to plant these one million trees.
While the company is yet to announce an official date of implementation for the full project, Al Ghurair has stated that the company expects to see results within two years in terms of having one million germinated seeds.
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