The Fondation Maisons du Monde supports the MiniBigForest association and its participatory urban forest projects

On 8 and 9 June 2018, the Fondation Maisons du Monde staged Aux Arbres, a trade and community event designed to raise awareness about preserving forests, biodiversity and the climate.

The speakers during the “Grands Témoins” testimonial evening included Shubhendu Sharma, founder of Afforestt. In his talk, he gave a clear, incisive description of how he created dense mini-forests throughout the world, inspired by the method invented by Japanese botanist Miyawaki.

These mini-forests, which can be easily adapted to the urban environment because they take up so little space, can be grown on the equivalent of six parking spots and contain up to 300 trees. Their advantage is that they grow 10 times faster than other forests, are 30 times denser and contain 100 times more biodiversity.

Moved by this talk and such obvious commitment, Jim Bouchet and Stéphanie Saliou decided to take inspiration from the Miyawaki method as well to construct “participatory urban forests” that would have a positive impact on the environment and people alike.

And that’s how the MiniBigForest association came about. Its aim is to grow the first “tiny forest” in the West. Today, the association is already trying out the method in Sorinières, near Nantes. This involves analysing the soil and the climate and choosing tree varieties. Tree planting began last December.