Miyawaki Microforests

What are Miyawaki's micro-forests?

For some time now, a relatively recent article has been running on several social networks in which the appearance of a “novel” proposal has been published, the purpose of which is to counteract the effects of climate change and generate more biodiversity in places or areas where it is scarce. We are talking about the micro-forests of Miyawaki.

The above-mentioned areas, mainly located in relatively small spaces ranging from 500 to 10,000 m2 of surface, had their first appearance in the 70s in Japan, where a man called Akira Miyawaki, aware of the lack of biodiversity existing in his country's forests, realized that by applying a series of planting techniques, he was able to create small forests with high densities that functioned as magnets for biodiversity, attracting a multitude of small fauna as oases in areas where the number of species of fauna and flora was scarce.

After several investigations, it was concluded that this form of planting creates areas that grow up to 10 times faster, are 30 times denser and generate 100 times more biodiversity than those that are planted by conventional methods.

Using mainly competition between individuals of the same and different species (which is one of the basic principles of forest silviculture) and without much subsequent management, these “miniature forests” are able to improve the environmental conditions of very specific areas, contribute to the mitigation of climate change and function as small-scale carbon sinks. Only a series of initial treatments are carried out to prevent marring and death of specimens in the initial plantation. Initially, these forests were designed to be created in urban areas, since they have most of the advantages associated with green areas, such as:

• Improving people's mental health.
• The reduction of the danger caused by pollution.
• The fight against “heat islands” in cities, where the use of materials such as cement or asphalt causes temperatures to rise.

It is in these places, modified by human action, that these mini-oases of biodiversity stand out for the amount of benefits they can offer, from temporary shelters for fauna, such as bird nesting sites, various insect and invertebrate development points, etc...

Effective application

However, although the potential and applications of these planting techniques in human populations are yet to be discovered, we could consider their viability in less urban environments, but equally anthropically modified and that suffer from problems similar to urban areas.

We refer more specifically to photovoltaic solar parks or wind farms; large areas that can alternate between rural agricultural and forestry locations, where very often we find that the installation of these structures ends up altering the natural state of the surroundings to a greater or lesser degree, if it had not already been modified in any way before. This affects both the fauna and the flora present in the surrounding area unevenly, depending on the conditions. During the construction and operation phases of these facilities, a series of spaces are created where it would be appropriate to create these Mediterranean mini-oases using surrounding vegetation, thus promoting a better integration of solar or wind power plants into the surrounding environment and in some way repairing the intrusion of the human being in the environment.

Therefore, the creation of this type of Mediterranean mini-oases would be considered as another compensatory measure to be taken into account by the promoters of this type of installation, together with plant screens or possible ecological corridors that are normally projected around plants to mitigate in part the impact caused to the environment by human beings.

Of course, it would not make sense to make these plantations with alien species, so the use of individuals who enable their development in environments of plant competence and fight for natural resources, such as oaks, pines, coscojas or junipers, among many other examples, further justify the creation of these Mediterranean mini-oases whose environmental benefits are very nourished and interesting to apply.

In addition, the creation of these mini-ioases in these areas would also contribute, together with the plant screens that usually accompany this type of installation, to increasing the surface area that acts as a carbon sink, through the introduction of several species of flora that help fix the atmospheric CO2 generated in other industrial activities. In the same way, by creating these small forests, we are indirectly creating points where biodiversity can flourish, which is the fundamental purpose for which this type of microforest has been conceived. A greater diversity of flora species would favor the appearance of avifauna, small mammals, pollinating invertebrates, insects, etc.

For example, it is not uncommon to find that many photovoltaic plants are located in agricultural or agroforestry landscapes that usually resemble the following image:

This image represents the space that should be maintained in this type of infrastructure with respect to individuals belonging to tree species such as oaks or pines. In these small areas, whose recommended minimum width should be twice the diameter of the affected cup of the foot, it may be appropriate to create these Mediterranean microoases. This fact, while further improving the integration of plants into the environment, acts as an ecological corridor in the form of spots (also known as “stepping stones”) where fauna can shelter, thus also reducing the rates of fragmentation of the territory that these facilities can produce and promoting the ecological connectivity of the environment.

In the case of wind farms during the construction phase, it is necessary to create a series of areas that must be devoid of vegetation, which will be used for the assembly of the different parts that make up one of these devices, as we see below:

These areas, around the wind turbines, could possibly house small Mediterranean mini-oases (of course, made with shrubs and not large species), which partially disguise the foot of the wind turbine and the access road, taking greater advantage of the polyhedral shape they generally have.

Finally, other options for creating Mediterranean micro-oases would still remain to be explored, because they are generally designed to be placed on square plots or specific areas, but a surface can be shaped in various ways, adapting for example to elongated areas, such as plant screens themselves; on slopes, as can happen on road slopes or in urban areas, where these micro-oases can also have interesting and multiple applications.

Image obtained from https://commons.wikimedia.org/