I used to get quite a few stories from Earthwatch Europe back in the noughties, when they sent expeditions to lots of places around the world. Nowadays they focus on issues closer to home such as butterfly counts and water quality, so there aren't so many different ecosystems involved, hence fewer features to write (although I did one on citizen science in 2021).
Recently I heard a talk from Claire Narraway at the Oxford Cafe Scientifique about their tiny forests programme, and was intrigued by the way the idea has travelled around the world, pioneered in Japan by Akira Miyawaki, and being scaled up in India, to arrive on some 300 tennis-court-sized plots in the UK. So I wrote a feature about it and also went to the local tiny forest in Meadow Lane to take a few photos.
My feature is out now:
How tiny forests became a big thing
Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 12, 23 June 2025, Pages R587-R589
Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(contact me if you would like a PDF)
See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.
The thread for 2024 is here .
Oxford's very own tiny forest in Meadow Lane. Own photo.
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