At Afforestt, we went open source in 2015 and released textual documentation for all our forests creation projects worldwide. However, soon we realised that not everything could be covered and communicated in text alone. So in 2020, we decided to run a Kickstarter campaign to create video documentation of the methodology in different languages. We are incredibly grateful for the wholehearted support we got from people across the globe. This is the first video tutorial out of the many we will be making and publishing in the future. We have explained the generic methodology of creating forests in these tutorial videos. We believe that if there is any evidence of a forest ecosystem having existed in a particular region, even before humans inhabited it, then we can recreate the same forest ecosystems using this methodology. We hope you like these videos and find them helpful in bringing back our lost forests.
After completing our Kickstarter campaign successfully in March 2020, we could not immediately start the project due to COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions. We wanted to create forests and shoot the process in various countries and geographies. So we decided to start our first round of video shooting in August 2020. However, we found the process much harder than we expected. It took more time than planned to complete the video shoots and create these video tutorials. We now present to you the first set of tutorials.
We shot these videos in Village: Patto Hira Singh, Moga, Punjab. It is a semi-arid region with tropical dry deciduous forests and an annual rainfall of around 498 mm. In these tutorials, we discuss the forests of this region and how to survey and choose soil amendment material based on local climatic conditions. However, with basic guidelines being the same, one can get a fair idea of forest surveys and choosing biomass materials for their region.
We primarily focus on bringing back lost forest habitats that existed a few hundred years ago before human intervention destroyed them. Our work does not focus on forest creation for carbon sequestration, harvesting timbers, paper, agroforestry, or other plantation modules prescribed in mainstream forestry. This methodology of forest creation focuses purely on biodiversity and ecological restoration. However, Carbon sequestration, reduction in local temperature, improvement in humidity, soil fertility and groundwater recharge are some of the significant impacts of these forests.
Word of caution: The forests we make look like natural forests. However, they still are man-made, or quasi-natural. They will start to look like old natural forests in a few years and even attract similar biodiversity. But these are in no way superior to natural old-growth forests. These forests should not be considered as the substitute for natural forests that have grown over a few hundred years. Thus, Forests made by natural succession are irreplaceable. The forests we make are a great substitute for lawns, gardens, or any other form of monoculture plantations. Removing natural forests and doing compensatory afforestation using this methodology should never be considered. Conserving existing old-growth natural forests is critical. In fact, natural forests are essential for our work, as they offer genetic material in the form of seeds of native flora for our projects. Thus, our foremost responsibility and duty is to conserve old-growth natural forests as there is no substitute for them.
Afforestt ( www.afforestt.com) is an eleven-year-old company. We specialise in making native forests, especially in urban areas. We have been lucky to have trained and worked under some of the best ecologists, including Dr Akira Miyawaki. Our methodology is based on the theory of Potential Natural vegetation and Potted seedling methodology, commonly known as the Miyawaki method. These videos use the Potted seedling method with few added layers to improve soil microbiology. They utilise Afforestt's research and development from various geographies spread across sixteen countries and four continents. The study took over 11 years and several interactions with other prominent ecologists of India and abroad.
These videos are narrated by Shubhendu Sharma ( Founder, Afforestt) and Gaurav Gurjar ( Forest maker at Afforestt). The methodology we are explaining is the result of our standard operating procedure co-developed and compiled through exhaustive research and on-ground implementation by Sunny Verma ( Executive Director, Afforestt.)
How: This video tutorial series is divided into 11 parts and should be watched in this order for better clarity and understanding. Names and titles of these videos, in order, is as follows:
Introduction to forest making series.
Forest survey
Nursery setup and procurement of species
Site readiness
Forest design
Soil test and preparation
Compost tea / Jeevamrut
Plantation and execution
Bill of materials
Maintenance
Growth Monitoring