Akira Miyawaki
Akira Miyawaki (1928) is a Japanese botanist and expert in plant ecology specializing in seeds and the study of natural forests. Since the 1970s he has been active worldwide as a specialist in the restoration of natural vegetation on degraded land.
Referring to potential natural vegetation (PNV), a concept he studied in Germany, he developed, tested and refined a method of ecological engineering today known as the Miyawaki method: to restore native forests from seeds of native trees on very degraded soils which were deforested and without humus. Using ecological theories and the results of his experiments, he quickly and successfully restored over 1,300 sites in Japan and various tropical countries.
Miyawaki showed that rapid restoration of forest cover and restoration of soil was possible by using a judicious choice of pioneer and secondary indigenous species, densely planted and mycorrhized. The Miyawaki method of reconstitution of “indigenous forests by indigenous trees” produces a rich, dense and efficient protective pioneer forest in 20 to 30 years, where natural succession would need 200 years in temperate Japan and 300 to 500 years in the tropics. He has published dozens of books, treatises, and articles on his researches and results.
“Rather than scrap them, I want to bring memory objects back to life as earth resources – for the sake of repose of souls, and for the future.”
Organization: He created The Miyawaki Model. He was professor emeritus at Yokohama National University and director of the Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology since 1993. He received the Blue Planet Prize in 2006
Location: Japan
Book: The Healing Power of Forests -The Philosophy behind Restoring Earth’s Balance with Native Trees, Plants and Human, The Last Day for Man, Testimony by Green Plants, Prescription for Restoration of Green Environments, Handbook of Japanese Vegetation, Chinju-no-mori (Native Forests of Native Trees) Books.org
Website: Akira Miyawaki | Inventor of Manmade Forest
Video 1: What is Miyaki Forest?
Video 2: Legend of the Forest
