Create your own microforest

with the experts, Urban Forests

Transform your land into a magnificent urban forest and achieve a strong environmental and community impact. Welcome to the experts in the Miyawaki method.

Get in touchOur experience

A solution to improve our quality of life, mitigate the effects of climate change and increase biodiversity.

Work together with the experts

Since 2016, Urban Forests has planted more than 100 microforests in Belgium and France using the Miyawaki method. We are proud to be the European pioneers of this method.

We have shown that we can achieve spectacular results with our expertise, as proven by scientific and photographic monitoring. We plant for private individuals, companies, schools, factories, public services and community groups.

A microforest ?

A microforest can transform our environment while creating a favourable habitat for biodiversity. It consists of an area of dense plantation, generally between 100 and 3,000 m², that imitates a natural forest. It includes a wide variety of native trees and shrubs and is particularly well suited to urban and peri-urban environments. Microforests help to create a more pleasant living environment.

What makes it different

Astonishing growth

Using the Miyawaki method, a microforest grows by around one metre each year, so the trees are above head height after just two or three years. After that it becomes denser and gains in biodiversity. After 10 years, you’ll see a beautiful, layered forest with trees reaching as high as 10 metres.

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Besides the microforest, seen to the right, conditions have changed for the rest of the grassed area, which is developing into a meadow.

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Thousands of insects live and thrive in the new understorey.

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The trees and shrubs are very diverse and attract all kinds of birds.

Landscape and biodiversity

The microforest is a vibrant ecosystem that that keeps on changing from season to season, varying widely in shapes and colours, and home to many different plants and animals. It helps us reconnect with nature while enjoying a better quality of life.

Low maintenance

The good thing about microforests is their self-sufficiency. After planting, the trees need some attention two or tree times a year for up to three years. Then the forest is effectively zero-maintenance.

Who’s it for ?

To create these self-sustaining ecosystems, Urban Forests works with a wide range of stakeholders, in towns or in the country.

Schools

Companies

Individuals

Property

Public authorities

Citizens' groups

Who’s it for ?

To create these self-sustaining ecosystems, Urban Forests works with a wide range of stakeholders, in towns or in the country.

Urban Forests - Plantation vue du ciel

More nature

At Urban Forests, having started in 2016, we now benefit from the experience of over a hundred different projects. Our team includes a biologist, a landscape gardener and all the other necessary skills to create microforests and biodiversity gardens. We really love our work

Our method

We apply the principles of the Miyawaki method, which originated in Japan and has proved its worth all over the world, despite the differences in soils and climates. In this approach, we choose native species that are adapted to local conditions, based on scientific criteria, such as the potential natural vegetation (PNV), and field observations. The aim is to recreate a native forest ecosystem more quickly.

Chêne dans une micro-forêt Urban Forests

« Every soil dreams of becoming a forest »

 

– Magdalena Valdès, ecologist.

« We need to take action and teach our children how to carry on the work. In this way, we can truly protect our future and theirs. »

– Akira Miyawaki, botanist.

« Re-learning how to live here on Earth means first of all learning again how to live with the natural world »

 

– Batiste Morizot, philosopher.

The Urban Forests documentary

After practising this method for a number of years, our team wanted some reliable and objective data about how the microforests were developing. We carried out a detailed study of six of our sites in Belgium, the results of which were published in 2023

This gave us precise figures with respect to growth rates, mortality rates, plant cover, the state of the understorey, the soils and temperatures, and the water infiltration rates. The results are positive !

Logo Décennie Restauration Ecosystème UN

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