Mini-Forest Revolution Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, reviewed

We look at this positive and achievable initiative, which is explained in more detail by Hannah Lewis. See more about Mini-Forest Revolution Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, on the Chelsea Green Publishing website here.

Mini-Forest Revolution Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, reviewed

We face a deforestation issue globally, with many associated other risks and challenges triggered by removing global tree cover. Hannah Lewis clearly and effectively explains the method pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who died shortly before this book was completed. Miyawaki’s ethos was to conceive a practical, doable methodology, with locally appropriate and fast yielding results. It is an exciting and empowering approach to inspire people to feel they can do something about the issues of deforestation and to make a difference in their own lives and locales.

Hannah Lewis takes Miyawaki’s ideas and first explains what they mean, how to enact them. Then she also discusses examples of where it has already been done, and the impacts that have been achieved. There is a great photographic section with numerous before and after / during comparisons from all over the world. This helps to reinforce the ideas expounded in the book and also helps to remind us all that visual changes can start to emerge in three to five years or even less with the right mix of trees and care.

At a time when we face dire environmental issues we lose nothing by planting more trees, especially if they are locally sensitive to the area where they are planted, rather than merely monocultures of ill suited coniferous trees. This is a positive, practical and hopeful book, check it out.

More about the book

“Hannah Lewis describes a gift to a despairing world. . . . There may be no single climate solution that has a greater breadth of benefits than mini-forests. . . [and] can be done by everyone everywhere.”—Paul Hawken, from the foreword

For readers who enjoyed Finding the Mother Tree and The Hidden Life of Trees comes the first-ever book about a movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by transforming empty lots, backyards, and degraded land into mini-forests. Author Hannah Lewis is the forest maker turning asphalt into ecosystems to save the planet and she wants everyone to know they can do it too.

In Mini-Forest Revolution, Lewis presents the Miyawaki Method, a unique approach to reforestation devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. She explains how tiny forests as small as six parking spaces grow quickly and are much more biodiverse than those planted by conventional methods. She explores the science behind why Miyawaki-style mini-forests work and the myriad environmental benefits, including: cooling urban heat islands, establishing wildlife corridors, building soil health, sequestering carbon, creating pollinator habitats, and more.

Today, the Miyawaki Method is witnessing a worldwide surge in popularity. Lewis shares the stories of mini-forests that have sprung up across the globe and the people who are planting them?from a young forest along the concrete alley of the Beirut River in Lebanon, to a backyard forest planted by tiny-forest champion Shubhendu Sharma in India.

This inspiring book offers a revolutionary approach to planting trees and a truly accessible solution to the climate crisis that can be implemented by communities, classrooms, cities, clubs, and families everywhere. 

“Lewis simplifies the science of planting trees in a manner that produces the maximum benefit.”—The Associated Press

More about the author

About Hannah Lewis