SUGi Talks Podcast

SUGi Talks is a podcast where we explore the powerful stories behind our pocket forests. Speaking with our expert Forest Makers and collaborators, we’ll dig into how we can help cities build biodiversity, climate resilience and wellbeing using Nature-based Solutions.

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Episode 5: How one Miyawaki Forest at the Yakama Nation is healing generations

Since time immemorial the traditional lifeways of the Yakama people have been deeply rooted in the natural world.

But the ongoing trauma inflicted on the community has left this connection to the land fractured, with indigenous knowledge dwindling amongst many of the younger generations. In 2020 Chief Alvarez, of the Yakama Nation Corrections & Rehabilitation Facility, was looking for ways to help the inmates reconnect to the land and plants that once shaped their culture.

Turning to the Miyawaki Method for its communal methodology and ingenuity in creating rapid growth native forests, he got in touch with our SUGi forest maker Ethan Bryson. Together with the inmates and with the guidance of traditional gatherer Marylee Jones, they built the Healing Forest, with the support of SUGi.

On this episode of SUGi Talks we speak to Marylee Jones and Ethan Bryson about the growing impact of the forest on the community there.

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Episode 4: The Miyawaki Method - A brief history of life-saving forests

In this episode of SUGi Talks, we meet Professor (Dr) Kazue Fujiwara.

In the 1970s, Japan was undergoing an industrial boom. As the skies filled with smog and pollution soared, public health became a grave concern.

In response Professor (Dr) Akira Miyawaki turned to native forests. Understanding their power in mitigating pollution and natural disasters, he developed The Miyawaki Method as a means to rapidly build dense biodiverse forests. Professor (Dr) Kazue Fujiwara was instrumental in the development of the Miyawaki Method, collaborating closely with Miyawaki right up until he retired. Today she is a vital guardian of the method traveling the world educating people about the power of Miyawaki forests.

Together we dive into the history of the method and understand just how exactly these robust forests can protect life.

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Episode 3: What Science says about our Miyawaki Forests

In this episode of SUGi Talks, we meet Dr. Grey Coupland.

Grey is our lead scientist at SUGi, and she holds the key to the rich data behind our Pocket Forests. Based in Perth Australia, she was recognised by UNESCO’s Green Citizen’s campaign for her STEM outreach program which brings Miyawaki forests into schools.

With a PhD in ecology, her most recent work is dedicated to investigating the use and effectiveness of Miyawaki forests in urban greening, specifically their impact on biodiversity, wellbeing, and climate change mitigation. Grey planted our first SUGi Pocket forest in Australia at South Padbury Primary School. From this forest, she’s been gathering important data about Miyawaki Forests and their impact.

Together we’ll speak about how Miyawaki forests can help cities as climate change puts our cities at risk.

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Episode 2: Can life thrive in the desert?

On this epesoide we speak with Gaurav Gurjar a jungle tree expert at Afforestt, and the Director of the Maruvan Foundation in Rajasthan. Over the past few years Gaurav has been restoring an area of India’s lost desert forest, and with the support SUGi he’s begun the second 4,000 Sq m phase of the project.

Living on the land, enduring intense heat and drought, Gaurav has worked tirelessly to harness the elements in order to restore the land, and the results are astonishing. We talk about about the power of deep observation, ancestral wisdom, and how as a society we could live in better harmony with Nature to create abundance for all.

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Episode 1: Can Pocket Forests save our cities?

For our very first episode of SUGi Talks, we meet James Godfrey-Faussett. As SUGi’s lead Forest Maker, James manages our global urban Pocket Forest and afforestation efforts. In the UK alone he has planted 20 forests, including the UK and Europe's biggest Miyawaki forest in Barking and Dagenham. Focussing on cities and the chronic lack of Biodiversity in our urban areas, we reimagine what healthy cities could look like. Alongside this, we speak about the healing power of Nature and the UK’s at-risk temperate rainforest biome.

Listen on Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple or below on YouTube