Japan-inspired Miyawaki forests are emerging as a popular solution to restoring degraded habitats in the country.

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Q.The Miyawaki Forests technique has to potential to revolutionize the concept of urban afforestation in India. Discuss.

Miyawaki Forests

• Doctor Akira Miyawaki, botanist and professor, is the inventor 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 approach is supposed to ensure that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than usual.
• It involves planting dozens of native species in the same area and becomes maintenance-free after the first three years.

The technique

• The method takes its inspiration directly from processes and diversity in nature: 15 to 30 different species of trees and shrubs are planted together.
• This plant community works very well together and is perfectly adapted to local weather conditions.
• The habitat thus created will get more complex over time and attract much biodiversity.
• Vegetation becomes much 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.
• It would take about 200 years to let a forest recover on its own. With the Miyawaki method, a similar result is achieved in 20 years.

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