There is no denial of the importance of biodiversity for maintaining the balance of ecosystems. We particularly decided to work on vegetation biodiversity because the deforestation of native species is a prevalent problem in our city and also our country. Many attempts to increase the vegetation mass, due to lack of knowledge, have unfortunately diverted into planting foreign species that are not suitable for the region, causing immense damage to autochthonous species and their surrounding environment. In addition, even when the correct species are planted, this usually is in massive quantities, disregarding completely the importance of variety, so the soils end up drained of minerals and unusable.

We created a mobile phone application: Bosque Disperso. Our aims are:

• To educate people in the importance of native forest and its biodiversity, how to plant trees, which species are suitable for each region and which are not.
• To facilitate the access to data related to changes of the distribution of the vegetation’s diversity in the region. Each new planted tree will have a species tag, so people can try to plant different ones. Also, they can unlock achievements when the trees they plant are from different species.
• To promote native tree plantations. When planting the native tree, the volunteer will account for its life, deciding where to plant it or how to take care of it. The forest will be ‘scattered’, which is against what a forest represents, but nonetheless it remains united by the will and spirit of the people that take on the challenge to repair the damage caused to the planet by our own hand. 
• To create an enjoyable environment, like a social network, in which people can share their trees, see the ones that other people planted, compete for achievements with their friends and also could be used by schools for field trips and by organizations for promotion. Users are encouraged to take new pictures of their trees while the time passes, sharing the tree’s development and making sure the change they made is permanent.
• To monitor the state of the region and recommend to the user where the trees are more needed. For this, we plan on using satellite images from various sources to determine:
• Vegetation coverage: by applying the NDVI index using LANDSAT images. This will be used to see which areas are more bare and therefore in more need of planting.
• Soil humidity SAOCOM and terrain slope (using digital models like DEM):. The combination of both of these variables could be used to indicate the areas with a higher risk of being damaged by water erosion, which would benefit greatly from the coverage and protection brought by trees.

This will be updated yearly by using four images in different times of the year, to know the average conditions. But with time, we hope to achieve a way for the app to update itself with every new image that comes from the region

Our app’s public includes schools, governmental and non governmental organizations and anyone who is interested in making a positive impact on Earth and being part of our community. We also hope that the sharing and community aspect of the app will provide the incentive for people to join and keep on planting!