The ACT’s recent success in generating climate-cooling micro forests has garnered international attention.
The capital’s innovative fundraising techniques and strong community commitment to urban greening will be showcased at Japan’s upcoming International Symposium on Miyawaki Forests and Urban Forests in October.
Edwina Robinson, founder of The Climate Factory, has pioneered the integration of microforestry into Canberra’s suburban design since 2019.
“Urban micro forests are densely planted pockets of native vegetation that grow quickly to cool the landscape,” Ms Robinson said.
“2019 was the turning point – Australia’s hottest year on record culminating in the Black Summer Bushfires. It felt like governments weren’t doing enough to counter climate change,” Ms Robinson said.
“With most of our projects we try and engage community from the beginning by getting them to lead the project and raise at least half the project funds,” Ms Robinson said, determined that locals should remain at the heart of the initiatives.
“This empowerment also gives them a sense of ownership over the project and ensures they look after it into the future.”
Her team received a $48,000 grant this year from the ACT Government to build a microforest in the suburb of Dunlop.
“On Canberra’s western outskirts, this suburb only has 12% canopy cover and is vulnerable to extreme heat,” Ms Robinson said.
Ms Robinson will discuss The Climate Factory’s achievements further at the summit in October.
Her message will centre around their innovative methods for raising funds.
“I’ll be talking about how we used crowdfunding to raise money and how the Watson Microforest leaders raised almost $53,000 towards building their community microforest.”
Looking ahead, Ms Robinson envisions a society where urban-greening is a priority, and communities are abundant with microforests.
“I think we are going to see a lot more urban microforests – in schools, universities, carparks and in people’s homes. I’d like to see them incorporated into all public landscape projects.”