Seeds of change
For less than the cost of an iPhone, you could grow your own forest
Shubhendu Sharma has planted more than 125 forests, including one in his own back garden. And, as the founder of social enterprise Afforestt, he’s created a free instruction manual detailing how any one of us can follow his lead – and for less than the cost of a new iPhone. Here, he tells us about his passion for native, wild, maintenance-free trees and why he’s on a mission to propagate them.
Most of the world was once covered in dense forest, but in the past 10,000 years, much of it has disappeared. Agricultural and industrial revolutions have accelerated deforestation drastically and, today, we’re in a position where we need to reverse the negative effects these events have had on our planet. Humanity is really suffering from the lack of global biodiversity and our weakened connection with nature. By simply planting more forests, we could restore all the basic elements we’re missing: clean air, fresh water, healthy food and a calmer, more peaceful life.
My goal is to bring back lost forests, and the way to do that is by planting new ones. Man-made forests can spread over acres and acres of land, but also fit into surprisingly small spaces, such as a back garden. I’ve facilitated the creation of all types – I’ve helped factories, farms, schools, homes, resorts, apartment buildings and even a zoo re-forest their land. You can plant 300 trees in the same place as it takes to park six cars.
For me, a forest is not an isolated piece of land where animals live, but rather something that can become an integral part of our urban existence. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. It just needs to be a place so dense with trees that you can’t simply walk into it. This way of thinking first dawned inside me when I learnt about the work of the Japanese botanist Dr Akira Miyawaki, who’s a specialist in the restoration of natural vegetation. He says that if you leave a piece of land alone, it will naturally return to being a forest – but that can take 150 to 200 years. So, he developed a method that can squeeze those 150 years into just a decade.
The problem is, there’s only one Dr Miyawaki and we need millions more trees worldwide. By studying his methods, I was able to refine them and devise one that anybody can follow to create a forest. After developing the manual, I tried planting a forest in my own backyard and, to my astonishment, it worked. That was when I realised that, even if you’re not a scientist, you can still bring back a lost forest. This motivated me to make forests in other people’s backyards, and so we became a backyard-forest-making company.
So, how do you plant a forest? Well, first, you look at the soil and identify the properties it lacks. If it’s too compacted for water to seep in, you mix in local biomass to make it more porous. Conversely, if it doesn’t have the capacity to hold water, you also mix in biomass, but this time, water-absorbent material such as peat, which encourages the soil to hold water and stay moist.
As well as water and sunlight, plants also need nutrition to grow. If the soil doesn’t have enough nutrition, we don’t add nutrition directly; instead, we add micro-organisms. They feed on the biomass we’ve mixed into the soil and that produces nutrients naturally, so all we need the micro-organisms to do is eat and multiply. As their number grows, the soil starts breathing again – it comes alive.
“I tried planting a forest in my own backyard and, to my astonishment, it worked”
Then we survey the native tree species in that particular location – that is, those that existed before human intervention.To find this out, we survey a national park to find the last remains of a natural forest, or the sacred groves around old temples. If we don’t find anything at all, we go to museums to research the seeds or wood of trees that existed there a long time ago. Old paintings, poems and literature from a place can also help identify which species used to be present.
Once we know our trees, we divide them into four layers: shrub, sub-tree, tree and canopy. We decide on the ratios of each layer, then the percentage of each species that should be in the mix. We collect seeds and germinate saplings out of them, making sure trees belonging to the same layer are not planted next to each other, because they’ll fight for the same vertical space when they grow tall. We plant the saplings close to each other and spread a thick layer of mulch on the surface so that, when it’s hot, the soil stays moist. When it’s cold, frost forms only on the mulch, so the soil can still breathe even when it’s freezing outside. It needs to be sufficiently soft that roots can penetrate it easily and rapidly.
Initially, the forest doesn’t look like it’s growing, but it is – it’s simply growing beneath the surface. In the first three months, the roots reach a depth of one metre. They form a mesh, tightly holding the soil, and microbes and fungi live within this network of roots. Once the roots are established, the forest starts growing at surface level. As it develops, and for the next two to three years, we water it and, because we want to keep all the water and nutrition in the soil for the use of our trees, we remove any weeds growing at their base. Eventually, the forest becomes so dense that the sun’s rays can’t reach the ground any more and weeds can’t grow there, because they need sunlight as well.
At this stage, not a single drop of water that falls into the forest evaporates back into the atmosphere. Instead, the dense forest condenses the moist air and retains that moisture, so we gradually reduce watering and eventually stop altogether. However, even without us watering it, the floor stays moist and sometimes even dark. Now, when a single leaf falls, it immediately starts decaying. This decayed biomass forms humus, which is food for the trees. As the forest grows, more leaves fall on the ground and more humus is produced, which means, in turn, that it can grow still bigger. Finally, you have a self-sustaining forest that will keep on growing exponentially, with no human intervention required.
Compared to a monoculture, these types of forests offer incredible benefits, such as a much faster growth rate and a much higher rate of biodiversity. We normally plant more than 30 species in each forest, which attracts a far wider range of birds, butterflies and insects than a single species would. Because of the density of growth, larger predators are put off penetrating too deeply, which makes it a haven for smaller animal species. The high density also enables us to use 100 per cent of the vertical space, because everywhere above the ground is filled with greenery. That gives us 30 times more green surface area of leaves than a monoculture. The forest will also absorb 30 per cent more carbon dioxide, and all the other ecological advantages are similarly multiplied.
“I believe our inner cities are the places where forests are most necessary”
I believe our inner cities are the places where forests are most necessary. The obvious reason for this is the clean oxygen that forests produce, but there are many other benefits, too. If you have a city that’s incredibly well connected with nature, you get to a stage where people are calmer, happier even less violent. Instead of going on a 15-day trip somewhere far away to be in nature, you could be taking a health trip every day, thanks to the accessibility of this dense green forest within the city. That way, you don’t feel disconnected from nature, and your mental and physical wellbeing is quietly being taken care of.
There are critics who suggest urban forests could be misused, but if you involve local people and make them the custodians, the risks are minimised. Cost is another factor that the sceptics query, but making a forest can be much cheaper than you might imagine. A 300-tree forest can actually be planted for less than the cost of an iPhone and, because of the open-source nature of Afforestt, anyone interested can obtain all the information they need to plant one themselves. The power this represents is incredible. If everyone decided to spend their money planting trees rather than upgrading their phone, in a matter of years, the world could be a very different place. Let’s not underestimate our personal power to influence the world for good.