MyTree App to track every planted tree with AI, QR codes and satellites

The I Have and Plan Foundation is building a platform that uses artificial intelligence, GIS and satellite data to keep track of whether planted trees survive, Banglavision reports. Its developers call the MyTree App Bangladesh's first AI-based digital tree monitoring app. The aim is to move tree planting beyond planting drives, giving every tree a digital identity, a stored record and long-term monitoring.

The problem is familiar: plantings are counted, but how many trees survive is not. The government is running a national programme to plant 250 million trees in five years, and those involved say such a large programme must also record where trees are planted and monitor their survival. Monitoring the programme with GIS, remote sensing, a national tree database and drone technology is part of the plan.

How the app is meant to work: at planting, the species, date, the person or organisation planting, location and photographs are stored digitally, and each tree gets a QR-code-based digital tree ID. Care, growth and survival data can be added later. Planned features include AI-based tree verification, GPS and GIS mapping, satellite and NDVI monitoring, drone surveillance and tree survival tracking.

The developers also plan digital tree certificates, carbon data and carbon credit support, dashboards and data analytics, leaderboards and gamification, and citizen participation. Their motto is 'one tree, one digital identity; every planting, a verifiable digital record'.

In the long run they want to lay the foundation of an integrated national tree database covering trees planted by government and private bodies, NGOs, community groups and citizens, showing how many trees of which species were planted where, by whom, and in what state they are now, which they hope will bring transparency and accountability to tree planting.

The initiative is still being built, and the report notes that its value will depend on effective implementation at national level.

Photo: ইব্রাহিম হাসান / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Banglavision