Deforestation is a huge problem. It destroys forests and affects entire ecosystems and wild animals, as well as native populations that live within forests, such as indigenous people and tribal groups. This creates a whole process of environmental destruction, beginning with the loss of vegetation, followed by the increase of temperatures and decrease of the amount of rain. Agriculture also feels these things, especially local productors who need to deal with scarcity of sources of their own production, and, consequently, scarcity of food (that also affects other locations that depend on this local production). I could list a bunch of other issues related to deforestation, ranging from its causes and effects. But, just to summarize, deforestation causes the ruination of one of the most important pillars of nature, the forests, and ends up affecting a chain of other things that rely its survival on forests (and these things are basically everything). 

But, how can we mitigate this huge problem being in cities far from the forests? Well, there are a lot of ways you can do that. For example, you can start a fundraiser campaign for a reforestation organization. Or, you can share your knowledge about the topic on social media, spreading awareness about the environmental agenda. Or, even volunteer in a local group to restore some of the urban natural habitats. But, there’s a method, which you probably already heard of if you are interested in the environmental world, that can contribute to making our cities greener. 

And this is called the Miyawaki method. Doctor Akira Miyawaki, botanist and professor, has been the pioneer of the technique since 1980. He is a recipient of the 2006 Blue Planet Prize, which is the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in ecology. The method has a potential to grow a forest in a time span of 20-30 years, which is much lower than a conventional forest that takes 200 to 300 years to grow naturally. In this method, various native species of plants are planted close to each other so that the plants receive sunlight only from the top and grow upwards instead of sideways. As a result, it grows 10 times faster and becomes maintenance-free after a span of 3 years. Vegetation becomes 30 times denser than conventional plantations, and it has the structure of a mature natural forest. It is a multi-storey structure, where different levels of vegetation appear. The forest thus structured delivers many benefits in the form of ecosystem services.

The seedlings are planted densely, 3 trees/m², and randomly (not in line), mixing as many native species of potential natural vegetation as possible. Approximately 3 years after planting, natural selection among the seedlings allows the most adapted ones to develop quickly. By 15-20 years an early model of a mature forest will be established. 

A Miyawaki forest planted grows each year by a minimum of 1 meter, without chemicals or synthetic fertilizers, using local materials. Hence, this makes the environment more enjoyable for everyone around, improves air quality, increases the animal biodiversity, decreases noise level and regulates temperature, and stores significant amounts of CO² that no longer stay in the atmosphere.

People have developed ways to make it on a larger scale by the principle of using native species, which turns out that the method can be used everywhere. This has already been implemented in many countries, especially in Japan and India, and has the potential to be one of the most efficient solutions to a variety of environmental issues. This happens because it is a fast alternative and easily-replicable, which are core values for our modern cities. We can create a lot of green spaces within urban settings and the best part is that everyone can do such things. There are few stages to complete a Miyawaki project and, so you just need some knowledge on the method (which you can find on the internet), some tools, a couple of friends and an open heart to the process. If we can destroy a whole mountain just to extract iron, we definitely can put some trees on the ground again and improve our urban lifestyles. 

Sources:   

google.com/amp/urban-forests.com/miyawaki-method/%3Famp
m.youtube.com/watch?v=5fJBKTYEFIc