The Madeira Botany Group (Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Madeira) has organised endemic plant harvesting with a Mamba drone, in inaccessible escarpments of Madeira from the 7th to the 11th of this month, with the collaboration of the Operational Command of Madeira and the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation.
According to a press release from the Communication Office of the University of Madeira, this initiative welcomes the participation of specialist, Professor Ben Nyberg (National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hawaii, United States of America) and includes the use, for the first time in Europe, of a drone system that allows maneuvering and harvesting in the complex topographic conditions of Madeira which, resemble those of the Hawaiian Islands. The harvesting system is called Mamba and was developed by the Canadian company Outreach Robotics.
“This drone has already allowed the collection and identification of unknown species on cliffs in Hawaii and is expected to contribute decisively to the taxonomic and genetic study of some of the rarest endemic plant species in Madeira,” clarifies a UMa press statement.
However, only some of the inaccessible areas will be sampled, but the collaboration that is now beginning between the entities involved will allow, for the future, better data on the biodiversity of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, thus promoting the conservation of a unique heritage at a global level.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
