Mini-Forests Offer a Fast-Track to Achieving Decarbonization

Small but mighty, explore our Mini-Forest Field Guide.

Explore MKSK’s Mini-Forest Field Guide, a toolkit for communities and developers with goals to restore habitats and combat climate change through carbon sequestration. Our resource provides a step-by-step guide to the planning, installation, and management of Mini-Forests.

Mini-Forests: A Nature-Based Tool for Climate & Biodiversity Resilience

The Mini-Forest method, originally developed by Japanese botanist and ecologist, Akria Miyawaki, is a highly engineered but natural technique for transforming a small tract of land into a densely planted pocket of native trees and shrubs. Installed in deeply cultivated beds with seedlings spaced as close as 18”, these plantings develop into mature self-sustaining forest habitat in as little as 20 years—a process that can take up to 200 years under natural conditions. Planted at densities reaching rates as high as 100x the number of trees found in a natural forest stand, Mini-Forests provide an enhanced suite of green infrastructure benefits within a fraction of the footprint, providing a compelling case for this small but mighty landscape typology.

Typically established through public planting events, Mini-Forests engage communities in efforts to combat climate change and loss of biodiversity while encouraging environmental stewardship. Mini-Forests generally recuperate initial installation costs within 12 to 15 years, after which they continue to reduce landscape maintenance costs and can provide a small income stream through carbon credit sales on the voluntary market.

Our Commitment to Sustainability

MKSK is committed to designing the change our world needs, discovering new solutions, and building new ways of working. Every project is an opportunity to address climate change in the design and planning of communities, landscapes, and cities. MKSK can assist in the design and planning of habitat restoration and carbon sequestering landscapes—including Mini-Forests—to help fulfill the environmental stewardship goals of our commercial, institutional, industrial, and public clients and collaborators.

Learn more about MKSK’s LAB for Climate & Biodiversity Resilience, here.

Download the Mini Forest Field Guide here.