AFFORESTT

India, Asia
Afforest

Afforestt is a thirteen-person firm based in Bangalore and New Delhi, India, that uses the Miyawaki Technique to quickly establish forests in deforested or degraded areas. The Miyawaki technique, or Miyawaki method, was developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki who evaluated contemporary Japanese forests compared to indigenous forests and found that the planted forests were less resilient to climate change and ill-suited to the climatic conditions across Japan. He developed a method to restore forests on degraded soils from seed without the remediation of soils or application of compost, testing his method across rural and urban areas to grow shelterbelts, woodlots, and woodlands. The method uses a rigorous site survey to research existing vegetation, germinates species in a nursery, and transplants seedlings with developed root systems into dense planting schemes that are randomly distributed instead of in rows. The dense spacing forces plants to compete for light vertically, quickly establishing a forest with multiple species. The technique requires a significant investment in labor at the beginning of the afforestation project but quickly diminishes the amount of time and resources required to maintain the plantings. The method is used across the world, from Japan to Indonesia to France, and has been adopted by several organizations in India. Afforestt has built 138 forests in 10 countries using over 450,000 trees to quickly afforest degraded soils in areas that face significant drought and erosion. The firm uses a variety of species, including edible trees and shrubs, in their designs for a variety of residential, commercial, and industrial clients.

2011 - ongoing
250 acres
1414 feet above sea level

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