DeepForest Technologies CEO Masanori Onishi to Speak at a UNCCD COP17 Side Event in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
We are pleased to announce that Masanori Onishi, CEO of DeepForest Technologies Co., Ltd., will speak at the official side event “Drone application to the Billion Tree National Movement” on Friday, August 21, 2026, during the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from Monday, August 17 to Friday, August 28, 2026.
About UNCCD COP17
UNCCD COP17 is a major United Nations conference bringing together the Convention’s 197 Parties to discuss international action on desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD). This is the first time Mongolia will host the COP. Under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.”, the conference will convene a broad range of stakeholders — government officials, researchers, businesses, civil society, and herder communities.
2026 is also the United Nations International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), bringing greater global attention than ever to the restoration of degraded land and to sustainable land management. In the host country, Mongolia, an estimated 77% of the national territory is affected by land degradation, and the government is advancing a national initiative to plant one billion trees by 2030.
Side Event Overview
| Event | Drone application to the Billion Tree National Movement |
| Date & time | Friday, August 21, 2026, 14:00–16:00 (local time) |
| Venue | Green Zone, Pavilion A7 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) |
| Speakers | Masanori Onishi (CEO, DeepForest Technologies Co., Ltd.) and others |
| Presentation title | Toward Monitoring One Billion Trees with UAVs and AI |
About the Presentation
In this session, Onishi will present “Toward Monitoring One Billion Trees with UAVs and AI”, covering high-precision forest measurement with drone LiDAR and its practical application to monitoring planted forests.
DeepForest is currently running a demonstration project in Mongolia applying drone LiDAR to afforestation monitoring. The presentation will examine the potential of measurement technology to quantify the results of land restoration in drylands, focusing on:
DeepForest’s in-house software, which uses drone data to detect individual trees, identify species, estimate tree height and DBH, and quantify carbon stock
Results from the afforestation monitoring demonstration in Mongolia, and how the technology can be adapted to dryland and sparse-forest environments
