HYF Forêts urbaines: greening cities for better living
In addition to improving the population’s overall health and quality of life, greening is a way to fight against climate change actively. But newly reforested zones need time to grow before they can bring ecological relief to their environment. Planting fast-growing mini-forests of native species in urban areas addresses this issue. Developed by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, this solution has been successfully tested on a small scale in various countries worldwide. In Canada, Yoann Dhion et Grégory Dhion based HYF Forêts urbaines, one of the winning project of the Winter 2021 cohort, on the same method.
The impact targeted by deploying mini-forests
In the video, Yoann argues for the relevance of deploying mini-forests in the city and reveals the surprises that awaited him during the Civic Incubator program.
“The impact targeted by the project is really twofold. First of all, it’s an environmental impact. Also, we realized that at the societal level, there are no trees in the most disadvantaged areas. So we want to bring trees to the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. To help us achieve this vision, we relied on the networking and the knowledge that the people of the MIS have. It was great to have this almost direct connection with people who have the skills we were looking for in this area.” — Yoann
To contact the HYF Forêts urbaines project team, write to hyf.foretsurbaines@gmail.com
Listen to Philippe-Antoine Saulnier’s broadcast on Radio-Canada’s “Le 15-18” about the concept of micro-forests and the HYF Urban Forests initiative and read his article: Planter une microforêt au bord d’une autoroute.
