Regenerating post-disaster cities with Miyawaki’s tiny forests

It’s been 12 years since the magnitude-9 earthquake and 40-meter (130-feet) high tsunami hit northern Japan in March 2011. Prolonged evacuation is finally ending in Fukushima around the flooded nuclear facilities. Unfortunately, these deadly disasters are abundant and ever more frequent, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires exacerbated by climate change. These disasters displace more people than wars now.

How can we respond to these natural disasters in a way that prevents their occurrence/recurrence? Conventionally, ‘recovery’ has rested on the imperative to repair, restore and prepare for future events, especially in terms of infrastructure.

The post-tsunami coastlines in Japan are dotted with concrete breakwaters so tall that villagers, who have thrived on the fishery for generations, can no longer see or hear the ocean. The walls divide nature and the people, without any guarantee that the next waves would not be record-breaking. Much of these reconstruction initiatives have been carried out in a top-down manner, without public consultations.

Miyawaki method and tiny forests

Some civil society groups have meanwhile begun planting trees in post-disaster cities, based on the Miyawaki method for creating dense urban forests. Forests can not only act as the first line of defense and natural barrier against storm surges, tsunamis and coastal erosions as natural barriers but also mitigate the effects of climate change by providing shelters from heat waves, sponges to retain excess water and prevent flooding and generate clean air.

Inspired by rich ecosystems around Japanese shrines and temples, a botanist Akira Miyawaki pioneered an approach of planting native species closely together, which has proven to grow ten times faster – becoming mature forests in just 20 years, instead of 200 – and support up to 20 times as many species as non-native managed cohorts. The sustainable and low-cost alternative has caught on in India, Pakistan and across Europe from the Netherlands to Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.

Make Happy recovering disaster-struck zones

One of these groups operating in Miyagi Prefecture, Make Happy, offers volunteer opportunities in the disaster-struck Ishinomaki city and the drought-damaged Mongolia, among others. Their staff scout nearby forests for seeds of native species, grow them in pots, and organize periodic planting sessions with artists, musicians and experts on disaster relief.

I joined one of their events with my 8-year-old in the Ishinomaki tsunami memorial park, where the tides swept away all that stood there before. It was a sobering and inspiring experience: undoing the damage caused, in part by us, and passing on the hope for the future, one tree at a time. As natural disasters are destined to be more common in the coming years, forest regeneration can, and should, be part of disaster preparedness and recovery. It creates life, rather than restricting it, and we can all be part of the process.