Mini-Forest Revolution by Hannah Lewis

Author:Hannah Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

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One afternoon in 2020, about a year after Dada and team planted Beirut’s RiverLESS Forest, Dada had just left the office of his Beirut architecture firm and was in the underground parking lot when a stockpile of ammonium nitrate exploded at the port a mile away. The blast shattered the windows of his office and trapped him under a gypsum ceiling, which fell in a sheet on his back as he leaned over his toddler to shelter her from the falling rubble. The pair was stuck for about twenty-five minutes before parking attendants managed to clear open a space for Dada’s child to emerge; he then slid out on his back from underneath the pile.

Dada was badly hurt, but he could walk. He eventually made his way to a hospital, where he was put in a back brace. He was among at least 6,500 people to have been injured in the blast, which was not intentional, but rather the outcome of government negligence. More than 200 people died and 300,000 lost their homes; others lost their businesses. Thoughts of COVID-19 faded far into the background as people poured into the hospitals that remained standing; some hospitals had been destroyed by the blast.

Fluffy toxic clouds lingered for days, Dada said, and the ground was covered in 800,000 tons of rubble, which the UN reported was likely to contain hazardous chemicals.4 “It’s been so emotionally draining,” he said. People are traumatized, he added, even those who were not directly affected by the blast, but had family members who were. Several months later, loud noises still triggered feelings of trauma for many. “Everyone feels violated,” he said. A year later, nobody had yet been held accountable.

As he himself recovered physically, Dada thought about how to help others put their lives back together. “I really believe in nature healing people,” he said. Thus, he came up with the idea to plant a forest as a “living memorial” in a neighborhood affected by the blast. But rather than dwelling on the past, a native forest memorial would look to the future. “We can heal the land damaged by the explosion and urbanization,” Dada said, “while the land heals us through the act of planting.”

His original plan was to plant a large area of at least 400 to 500 m2 (4,300 to 5,400 ft.2) near the epicenter of the blast, and to collaborate with mental health providers to facilitate nature-based therapy for people suffering from trauma. By planting and then tending the trees over the couple of years it takes a Miyawaki mini-forest to become self-sufficient, the participating community would simultaneously strengthen their own inner resources.

Because the explosion site at the port is in the city center, where land is expensive, no terrain of this size became available. Instead, Dada found a public park that appeared to have been abandoned in a neighborhood a mile from the epicenter—it contained dead trees, shrubs, and grass; three broken water fountains; and lots of litter. Collaborating with

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