Jordan: How an architect brings the forest back to the desert

On a November morning, Deema Assaf enters a tiny forest in eastern Amman. Like a foreign body, it nestles in the concrete desert of the Jordanian capital: delicate shrubs and trees surrounded by a wire mesh fence and plastic waste. In May, Assaf and her team planted almost 800 seedlings in the neglected park. Now, six months later, they reach up to the petite woman's knees. "Pistacia lentiscus," Assaf says. "This is what a forest would look like in Jordan if we humans had not interfered with nature." With her mini-forests, she wants to bring the displaced green back into the city. Or, as the trained architect puts it, "rewrite urban space".

Assaf follows the method of the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. Native shrubs and trees are planted in a very confined space. On average, there are three seedlings per square metre. Because they compete for sunlight, they strive to grow upwards at a rapid pace. Nutrient-rich, moist soil gives the seedlings an extra jump-start.

Miyawaki proponents claim that the method can accelerate the trees' growth tenfold. In other words, a supposedly hundred-year-old forest is created in just ten years. Miyawaki had already invented the method in the 1970s. Now that the world is looking for quick solutions to climate change, the number of his followers is growing almost as rapidly as the trees themselves.

 From Latin America to Canada, from Southeast Asia to Europe: "Tiny Forests" are shooting up all over the world. In Germany, too.In and around Hamburg, for example, the Citizens Forests association is planting mini-forests. These are intended to provide a home for birds, small mammals and insects, bind CO₂ and thus mitigate the climate crisis. Why wait, supporters ask, when you can accelerate growth? To which critics like environmentalist Yellappa Reddy counter: "It's not a good idea to force plants to photosynthesise so quickly." His native India is now a Miyawaki stronghold.

In the Arab world, Deema Assaf entered 2018 as a small forest pioneer. In a private garden in Amman, she planted the region's first "Tiny Forest". Sceptics expected her to fail in arid Jordan. After all, the Miyawaki method was developed for the rather humid climate of Japan. Assaf was not deterred by this. She relies on trial and error, coupled with confidence. So did Miyawaki himself. In his essay "A Call to Plant Trees", he wrote: "Anyone serious about this endeavour can start anytime, anywhere." The crucial thing, he said, is to focus on native species. A Miyawaki forest is therefore always a quasi-native forest. "No other man-made forest is as natural," Assaf says. She is not all about quick growth. Miyawaki, for her, means above all returning to her roots.

Jordan is one of the driest countries in the world. According to Global Forest Watch, the tree population is negligible at 0.03 percent of the total land area. Yet where nowadays mainly desert spreads, elephants or Asiatic lions used to live in dense forests. Assaf learned about this when she was working on architectural projects in national parks. Shortly after, she saw a TED Talk by the Indian engineer Shubhendu Sharma. The title: "How to create a forest in your backyard".

For Assaf, it was a key moment. She had always been interested in green architecture, she says. "But I was really obsessed with mini-forests from that moment on." She travelled to India, took a course from Sharma. From him, she learned how to enrich the soil with natural nutrients and microbes, and how to choose the right species for the forest. And how to divide it into different floors so that every plant and tree can survive - despite the competition for water and sunlight. All the building blocks are important to the Miyawaki community, Assaf says: from the tiny microbes in the soil to the large mother trees that provide nutrients to seedlings through a fungal and root network. "Trees are smart creatures," she says.

On the way to the next of her forests, Assaf talks about her childhood in Amman. Back then, the Jordanian capital seemed like a village to her. Chains like Starbucks and McDonald's didn't exist yet, drivers had to slow down again and again because flocks of sheep were roaming the streets. Now she steers her Mercedes through the densely built-up east of the city. "Concrete and asphalt, that's Amman today," she says. Arriving at her destination, she smiles. Omar Sharif smiles back and opens the gate to a park. He has been working here for more than twenty years. When they planted the Miyawaki forest two years ago, he says, his place of work transformed. With the greenery came back the birds, insects and animals. Sharif has even seen a family of foxes in recent weeks. "It was like magic," says Sharif.

In the Netherlands, scientists have made similar observations. For a year they documented the species diversity in two Miyawaki forests and compared them with control forests in the surrounding area. Their result: In the Miyawaki forests, species diversity was 18 times greater on average. In addition, they convert CO₂. According to calculations by the Belgian organisation Urban Forests, 100 square metres of Miyawaki forest can store the annual carbon emissions of an average European.

Far too little to do anything about climate change, say critics. In general, the scientific foundation is still too weak, too many questions unanswered. For example: What effect does the accelerated growth have on the health and quality of the trees in the long term? Can they actually promote rain like other forests? How does competition affect the diversity of the mini-forests? Assaf is aware of these gaps in knowledge. Instead of being deterred by them, she is gathering new knowledge. Her team has planted five "Tiny Forests" so far. Each time they have learned something new.

The seeds for the tiny forests are stored in a greenhouse on the outskirts of Amman. Together with the agricultural engineer Fadwa Al-Madmouj, Deema Assaf examines their progress this morning. There are no manuals or scientific data on the cultivation of the original species in Jordan. Assaf's team is collecting and sharing their newfound knowledge. "My big wish is that Miyawaki becomes mainstream," she says.A few days ago, an acquaintance called her; he is planting mini-forests with volunteers in nearby Lebanon. "The country is sinking into trouble and chaos, but they are not letting it stop them," Assaf says. For her, that is one of the greatest strengths of the Miyawaki forests: They withstand even the greatest crises.

Read more: The feature has been published in January 2023 in the German online-magazine Fluter.de. Click here to read the full version in German.

Picture: Nadia Bseiso