Thank you,together we’ve planted city orchard and flower meadow.
See photos in the gallery.
Check out our collective planting campaign
Green City of Poznań is a common initiative of Poznań residents – local activists, enterpreneurs, nature enthusiasts and everyone who wants to make Poznań a better place for people and environment. Our method for green, biodiverse city is planting Miyawaki forests.
Date: Oktober 2023
We Provide saplings
A lot of ECO entertaiment
We Provide equipment
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so you cant find out when and where we plan to plant the next pocket forest.
Check where we plant!
1st edition
November 2021 – Milczańska
Spring special edition
May 2022 – Milczańska
2nd edition
October 2023
We plant a forest in the city for ourselves and for nature.
Together, we create Green City of Poznań to take care of both nature and city residents. There’s a very simple way to do that – by planting forests. Among the settlements, between buildings, near the busy roads. We are the first in Poland to introduce pocket forests into our city.
They are small refuges of diversity, green enclaves in place of concrete. We want as many of them as possible to be created here in Poznań. In 2021 UWI Inwestycje S.A. initiated the first planting of urban Miyawaki forest in Poland. Collective planting turned out to be a great success, worth every hour of hard work that we’ve spent preparing. The first pocket forest, planted by more than thousand od Poznań residents, is already growing. Since then, our initiative has also grown – many established companies from Poznań joined our cause. Now together we plan our next actions, which will result with The Green City of Poznań.
Małgorzata Puchyła,
Director of UWI Inwestycje S.A.
– project initiator
The concept of pocket forests is completely new in Poland, while this method is more than 50 years old. The idea of planting forests in a small area was created by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who was inspired by nature itself. Lately, this concept has started to be popular in European cities – few hundred pocket forests were created, as many as 85 in the small Netherlands.
Why this idea makes sense? Because these forests can be planted literally everywhere – in degraded areas, among apartment buildings, where there are no trees. The most important part of this method is
the way of planting inspired by processes occurring in nature. One needs to plant as many native species as possible: yews, rowans, willows, poplars, maples…
And it should be done at high density, chaotically, spontaneously, not in rows like on a plantation. This results in the forest growing even ten times faster.
In Poland this is still an experiment. These tiny forests are the forests that we can have outside our window. It’s a greenery that cools and a shelter for birds, drowning out the city noise. And planting pocket forests together with city residents and then having local communities look after them has a significant meaning in building the bond with nature.
Kacper Jakubowski
President of the Children in Nature Foundation
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If, just like us, you believe that ecology is really important in business and you want your company to be environmentally friendly…
A pocket forest (microforest, tiny forest) is an extended ecosystem in a small area. It consists of 15 to 40 native tree and shrub species.
Pocket forests are planted according to a method developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. It is inspired by the processes of nature as well as its diversity and allows for effective reforestation of urban areas. The method has also become popular in Western European countries and in 2021 it came to Poland.
The key elements of the Miyawaki method are:
planting density
faster growth of plants
biodiversity
Miyawaki method
1. Identification
With the help of experts, we identify native plant species (between 50 and 100) that are adapted to local climate and soil conditions. This makes them more likely to survive and form a complete ecosystem.
2. Selection
To design a multi-layered forest, we choose plants that will form the lowest undergrowth, the understory, and the forest stand.
3. Planting
Together with volunteers and the local community, we plant selected saplings – 3 to 5 per m2 – on a properly prepared ground. With dense planting, the trees grow upward, stretching out into the sunlight.
4. Care
For the first 2-3 years we care for young saplings. We protect them with supports, water and remove invasive weeds.
5. Monitoring
We monitor development and growth of the forest. We gain vital data by observing how the forest affects surrounding environment.
Benefits
Soil stabilization and erosion prevention
Water retention and purification
Shelter for birds and insects
Localised temperature reduction
Improved air quality
Noise reduction
Positive impact on local residents
Involvement of local community
Educational value, especially for children
Want to know more?
Download an ebook with additional information about pocket forests.