Urban Forestation Through Miyawaki Technique by Seva Sahayog Foundation
PROJECT REPORT
on
Urban Forestation using MIYAWAKI TECHNIQUE
About the organisation:
Seva Sahayog Foundation aims at creating a synergy between the corporate and the social world. They help NGOs, which exist for a noble cause yet lack the amount of funds needed for them to operate and achieve their goals, connect with corporates which have the resources to engage in CSR with the purpose of collectively adding value to the society at large. They run various projects, which are focused towards fulfilment of deprived needs of socio-economically challenged strata of the urban slum communities. Seva Sahayog’s core activities include education, woman empowerment, health and environment.
About the project:
About Miyawaki Project:
The environmental project taken on by Seva Sahayog Foundation aims at increasing the overall green cover of the region and enhancing its biodiversity, while also reducing the carbon emissions of the territory. This project uses the Miyawaki concept originally developed by a Japanese scientist, "Akira Miyawaki." The concept entails planting trees of native species as close together as possible in the same location, which not only s aves space but also helps the saplings grow and blocks sunlight from reaching the ground, reducing weed growth. This project of urban forestation was introduced in 2018 with the following objectives:
1) Increasing urban dense forestation and thus increasing the green cover in the city.
2) Enhancing the biodiversity
3) Increasing carbon absorption and climate change mitigation
In this technique, Dense plantation, with a strategy to place sapling which support the growth of the adjacent sapling. The forest is estimated to grow 10x faster and 30x denser. There 4 layers of plantation in the particular air, all 4 thriving together, creating a dense green space. This method involves planting three to four saplings per square metre, using native varieties adapted to local conditions. A wide variety of species – ideally 30 or more – are planted to recreate layers of a natural forest.
Before plantation, local agro-climatic conditions, including soil quality, are studied. Three layers of greens – shrubs and undergrowth, medium-height trees and taller canopies – are integral components of the Miyawaki forests. Mulching, natural water retention and perforation material like rice husk and use of organic compost, cow dung support their growth.
Miyawaki forests grow in two to three years and are self-sustaining, like how a forest is. We have to remove weeds, water the saplings for those two to three years. It is not a garden, which needs long-term maintenance, where grass needs trimming or watering is done regularly.
Miyawaki forests are designed to regenerate land in far less time than the time it takes a forest to recover on its own, which is over 70 years.
Hitherto, the total area covered through this project by Seva Sahayog has been 13,500 sq. ft., spread across different locations within Mumbai, such as Malad, Kandivali, Goregaon and Powai. The total number of plants in these areas amount to 7195, encapsulating roughly 49 different species in them.
Further entailing the details of the Project that have already been implemented.
Research tools and methodology applied:
The research that we conducted was based upon the observations we had and the surveys we conducted on the local people, along with people who were involved in the set up and the maintenance of the project in their respective areas during our visit to these locations.
Research findings
We began our research by visiting 3 prominent locations where the Miyawaki Urban Forest Initiative had already been implemented by the Seva Sahayog Foundation.
Attaching a picture of these locations for reference.
MCGM Garden, Near Infant Jesus High School Miyawaki forest right at the heart of the city.
Malad West
We observed, the Miyawaki urban forestation initiative is a great way to utilize patches of open land in the middle of the city. Owing to the large number of species of plants and greater number of plants planted in a restricted area has multiple benefits.
In quantitative terms, one can measure the AQI inside the forest patch, and outside in the city air to measure the difference, the temperature difference that we observed, under the scorching heat of Mumbai was evidently lower inside the patch due to the shadow cast by the dense canopy of multiple layers of plant.
To look at the qualitative benefits, we talked to the locals, who were particularly happy with the forest patch that had been instilled in the park in their area, not only was it aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, it reminded them of their older days when forests used to be a more common view, right in the middle of the hustle bustle of this city life.
They said they took some time of the day to sit by and enjoy the beauty of nature, they were also astounded by the speed of the growth of these plantations, (credits: Miyawaki technique, a natural forest would have taken several years to grow to this size).
Children playing around the enclosed space were excited about watching squirrels, new species of birds, butterflies and insects, indicating that biodiversity had thrived too.
We asked the local maintenance personnel about his experience with the upkeep of this patch. He was very content with respect to the efforts put and the results. He demonstrated to us how the entire maintenance process works. According to him, there were no substantial extra efforts required to upkeep the patch. The drip irrigation technique used, helped with the initial growth of the plants, after which watering them normally works as well. Due to the multiple layers of plantation in the same region the fallen leaves decompose and get mixed in the ground in turn providing nutrients for healthier growth.
Advantages:
These forests have thirty times more trees than other plantations and are perfect for cities, where land is scarce
To improve the green cover and found this method to be more useful than parks and gardens
Improves community value, as a lot of people coming together and celebrating trees
Regular exposure to forest-type environments improves health parameters like blood pressure and heartbeat. It has been scientifically proven that when you have green spaces, automatically your mood and spiritual health improves, and even the rate of crime decreases.
Conclusion
The Miyawaki Urban Forestation measure has been proven to be successful in many ways to create awareness and increase sustainable space utilization in commercial areas to improve the biodiversity and ecological balance.
Recommendations
From our observation and analysis of the multiple sites where the Miyawaki afforestation has been implemented, we would drawn upon some points that could add to the initiatives:
As suggested by the caretaker, the drip irrigation pipelines get stuck after some point, so we can instead normal irrigation technique for smaller plots of land
In order to increase the popularity of these measures to create awareness, drives and campaigns can be held. Competitions like photography or sapling donation can be conducted to bring the community together
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