The founder using 'pocket forests' to transform cities and protect biodiversity

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Elise Van Middelem, SUGi Within these pocket forests, we can create urban acupuncture, meaning small spaces can immediately become wild, lush places of habitat. So if you create all these kind of touch points within a city, you can actually, really help that biodiversity come back.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Welcome to Meet the Leader, a podcast where top leaders share how they are tackling the world's toughest challenges. In today's special episode ahead of Earth Day, we talk to Elise Van Middelem all about the incredible concept of pocket forests, her startup SUGi, and how nature can transform cities, lives, and mindsets.

Subscribe to Meet the Leader on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review us. I'm Linda Lacina from the World Economic Forum and this is Meet the Leader.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi The most surprising effect and acfually beautiful effect is people, is that these pocket forests bring community together. My hope is that we can reconnect as many people as possible to nature.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Around 2.5 billion more people will live in cities by 2050. That's according to the UN. And in other words, two out of every three people on earth will live in cities in just a few decades. That has huge implications, as you can imagine, to everything from habitat loss to pollution to human health.

There's a unique solution that can help with that, and it's the pocket forest. In 2019, Elise Van Middelem founded SUGi. That is a global organization that conceives, plans and funds pocket forests all over the world -- around 170 so far. She calls these pocket forests the kind of urban acupuncture, one that can protect biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and even better reconnect people to nature.

I had a chance to talk to her at the Urban Transformation Summit last fall in Detroit, and she shared with me the amazing changes that can come when bringing these forests to cities, including the return of things that we might take for granted. Things like birdsong and the rustling of leaves.

She'll talk about this and how this experience has changed her as a leader. She'll also share how anyone can reconnect with nature and why making that a priority is so important. We will get into all of that, but first, she'll get us started with more on SUGi, what inspired it and how it began.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi SUGi -- it's the name of a tree. It's my favourite tree. It's the Cryptomeria japonica, the sister of the redwood. And in fact, in Japan, there are over 2000-year-old Sugi trees. And they're called human Sugi And they're, like, nurturing what is on top of them grow 13 different woody species. And so it's that idea of like, the kind of ideals we'd love to embrace within Sugi is that interconnectedness, that kind of cohabitation and that also diversity of species, they can thrive together.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Tell us a little bit about SUGi. For those who aren't familiar, what what does it do and what is the impact it's driving?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi SUGi is a global organization and our goal is threefold: It is biodiversity, it's ecosystem restoration, and reconnecting people to nature. And we do that through the creation of ultra dense, biodiverse pocket forest of native species only. It's a method that we adopt. It's a Japanese method where we planned on minimal space, maximum diversity.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader How did you get the idea to do this? Tell us a little bit about what your inspiration was and why you needed to execute it in the way that you do.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi So first of all, SUGi is born out of a personal need. I wanted to plant trees, but I had a hard time understanding the accessibility, the visibility, the accountability how and where are these trees planted. And so the idea really was to bring nature closer to plant right where we live and work. And through the creation of this pocket forest in cities, you touch upon a myriad of solutions.

And first order: human health. You know, it's that nature deficit order. It's joy. It's cleaner air. It's cooler air, reduction of temperatures. But then it's also that whole biodiversity ecosystem level. And that is, of course, you know, the biodiversity, the birdsong, through that creation of dense pocket forest, we have migratory birds that come back. It's so held. It's the web of life, all that comes together.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Tell us a little bit more about urban forests and how you sort of solve for that in cities around the world.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi First of all, and I think it's important - urban forests. So there's different ways to plant trees, right? There's trees and streets. There's parks. But when we talk about urban forests, we talk about pocket forests. And again, we talk about that density. We talk about on one square meter, ten square feet, we plant three trees.

The pocket forest for us is that idea of like urban acupuncture. So today, our cities, nature is an integral part of it. It is not some sort of like oh yeah, add on. We all need that nature. And the services they provide, they can really be translated within these pocket forests, we can create urban acupuncture, meaning small spaces can immediately become wild, lush place of habitat. So for pollinators, a bee can travel 1.3 miles. So if you create all these kind of touch points within a city, you can actually, really help that biodiversity come back.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader And how do you do this? So maybe you take us through maybe one particular project that you've done, how do you sort of helped create and enable a pocket forest?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi So today we've created, until this day, 170 pocket forests around the world. The method in itself is very simple. As you look at a space and you start with the soil. So this is very important. We never plant a single tree we always look at as a whole. And I think that's the most important part of a pocket forest, is that you look at it as a biome. So it becomes this kind of one self-sustaining whole.

And you start with the soil. You bring back the natural ingredients through manure, through mycelium networks, and compost. You plant densely and then you mulch heavily.

Through the mulching, you actually create its own ecosystem. And then through that dense plantation, which is fantastic. You create that underground collaboration and above the ground sort of mini competition for light. So within 2 to 3 years we have self-sustaining forests.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader What is the change then, for biodiversity? For for cities where there's a pocket forest, what's the change?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi Yeah. So we see it already today happening. So spaces as from like 1000ft², 2000ft². We really see from one street to the other where there is birdsong, where there is all of a sudden sound, there's a rustling of leaves, there's a vibration, there's species that come back.

So in many cities where we planted -- endangered species -- because we plant native, and where can they find habitat still, where can a bird nest uninterrupted? It's very hard. There's a lot of noise and sound in a city. But through the creation of that ultra-dense biome and that one ecosystem, you allow for bird to nest.

In Pakistan, we had a National Geographic photographer go into the forest and find endangered species that not been seen before. Same in with the Yakima Nation in the US.

It's that idea of bringing back what was once there.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Has there been a particular city that maybe it's transformation was surprising even to you?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi The most surprising effect and actually beautiful effect is people. Is that this pocket forest bring community together. The planted. And we always say the more the merrier to plant it with a lot of joy and a lot of laughter. But for children in particular, you see, we plant a lot in schools.

We call them the outdoor classrooms. If you think of it today or schools, you know, there's a lot of concrete, concrete up on concrete. So we pave and we rewild. And for children, they become the places where they learn, but where they also can sit, well, not very hot days.

And for kids to touch soil, you'd be surprised. Most of them have never done it. Most of them have never, like touched a worm because we put worms back in the soil, they aerate and they bring life.

And so I think one of the the biggest effects that we see today is that is it, you know, in a neighbourhood, is it in school. Is that how people become stewards of the forest? And take ownership. And the best and thriving first is planted within a community.

For example, in in the accommodation, we created a healing forest with a correctional facility. And imagine the land was dust. Nothing. No life. Nothing we planted with the inmates. And today, this is a thriving forest.

And I think Native American culture, they were the original stewards of the land. And for them to create that realignment and create like an access to the silent nation, the plant nation, is quite powerful because today they're making teas and they're making educational workshops within the forest. So it has been a reintroduction of what was once there.

In Cameroon, for example, imagine water catchments, right? There are essential part of a community. They wash their clothes, they get their drinking water there. They wash their bikes, wash their cars. But the encroachment on the water, which means what's on to that level, that there was almost no more water running.

So today what we're doing actually really actively -- we're we've done five now -- is rewilding the water catchments. And the stories are so powerful because the thousand square meters is about 10,000ft². There're 3,000 trees. The water runways became so strong that they now put solar panels and they're pumping the water to other villages. So, you know, small spaces, massive impact.

Some things that we also can't measure in the sense that, you know, we plant and then the rest is up to the community.

But then also like in London, if you think about it, there's different kinds of councils. And they were working with two councils in Barking, Dagenham and Newham. And we're looking at that kind of really low income neighborhood that they have huge problems with flooding and heat islands. And so what we're doing is creating these pockets of diversity within schools and in the parks. Because parks today, when it's a hot summer like we had a year ago with no rain, they become just like concrete and just scorching hot. So what we're doing is that we're transforming these parks and really bringing that kind of forest within it. Dense forest.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader In ten years. What impact do you hope SUGi will have had? Like what's the the before and after you would hope to see in ten years?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi First of all, these forests are in 2 to 3 years self-sustaining. And SUGi today is four years. And we can already see massive transformation. By the end of the year we'll have 200 pocket forest planted, and you literally can already see the transformation.

And my hope was, I mean, we had to start somewhere and we started really with dots around the world. But my hope would be that within ten years, let's say, we can have worked with a city to look at biodiversity corridors, to really take on a whole city as a case, and maybe one or 2 or 3 and create corridors for biodiversity, corridors for life.

And I think more than ever with COVID, we saw it. Everyone craved nature. We all looked for a place. It was. It even bringing plants within our home, but to go and reconnect to nature. And so my hope is that. We can reconnect as many people as possible to nature.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader To do these biodiversity corridors: What's needed to sort of speed the adoption or the momentum, what's what needs to be in place?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi If I may say funding, of course, public and private. But then also understanding. You see, I think this was the challenge creating SUGi is that you go to people and you say, hey, we're not going to plant trees. We are going to create pocket forests. We're going to create biomes. People are. Wait, what? What do you mean?

Today it's different, right? I can come and we have an impact report. We have a book. It can show the results. But I think understanding the power of these forests is as important as the funding. It goes hand in hand.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader And in your mind, what should city planners be factoring in when they are incorporating any kind of nature-based solution? What should they be factoring in?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi Biodiversity. It's a key aspect that is overlooked. Whatever we do in life, we need our pollinators and we need the web of life.

Depends also on country. For example, with the experience that we had in London, one council, it was striking experience, is that -- imagine cities today they buy, if I may say, full grown, expensive trees. These are trees that are just literally put into concrete, right on a very small space. And they're standing there alone. In a few years with a bit of heat those trees do not last. Here's the thing. What we do with SUGi pocket first. It is an essential infrastructure. Its low cost and its long-term resilience.

You see, nature is complex. And without the complexity, there is no resilience. And I think that's just the simplicity of it. Like, if we want to make resilient cities and let's think on how we adopt nature within it.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader If there were 2 or 3 groups, you're like, gosh, you know, this could make such an impact if these folks were fully online to knowing the impact, who would be really, really beneficial to understand this even more?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi For sure, city officials and again, a city is defined in many ways. If you look at cities in South Africa or cities in, you know, again, in the US, or like you go to New York with San Francisco, it's all very layered. But in the end, what it takes is one person that says, let's do this, with a vision and what an ability to fund things. Can literally be anyone. It's just somebody that believes in this transformation.

And so I have to say, we did have a fantastic city here in the US reach out to us and and ask us to look at the masterplan. And that is for me, visionary. It's like also taking a leap of faith, of doing differently because I understand with real estate, when you have a client, they need to also deliver a finished product.

And what we do with SUGi is we build from the ground up. We plant saplings that are what, 40-60cm. So they're small and we create from the ground up. So it takes time. But if you want to do things resilient it takes time. 2 to 3 years. What is it in the end, in the scope of things? Nothing. You know.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader You'd said that, hey, it's not about just planting one tree that we need to sort of create a biome. Are there other perception shifts that or maybe misunderstandings that people might have about creating nature-based solutions that people just they're not enough and they just maybe don't fully understand?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi When we started, people were like, why? Okay. And today you can say, now there's all these pockets around the world. We were out there in London measuring the temperature on one of the hottest days. There was 17°C difference on the street versus next to the pocket forest. What more can we do?

And that is a conversation that happens often, is like our cities are getting hotter and people would like be tempted to plant species that come from hotter regions. But why? Why not plant native and plant dense? We bring back the small mammals that were once here, and even when you plant dense and some trees do not survive, it doesn't matter because you still will have a dense ecosystem. And it will support one another. See again, if one tree will fail, the other will support it. It becomes resilient.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Is there a way that you have maybe changed how you approach building these pocket forests now, than maybe when you started in 2020? Is there something that hey, didn't occur to you in the beginning, but now you're like, oh, this is an integral part of this process. We should always consider x or y or do x or y.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi The method is the method. It's a proven Japanese method of planting. So we really go by this method and the forest makers -- Now let me tell you like we've got a community of 26 forest make around the world. And they all train with us. And they really adopt the method in an authentic way. And that's another thing. That authenticity is so important.

And so in that regard, nothing has changed. But what has changed is that all of a sudden we understand what we do because, you know, three years have gone by the some of the forests are completely wild and self-sustaining. And that is when you can start to see hope. I think it was so important with SUGi to, to to bring that hope in people's lives and that joy and the laughter when we plant.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Was there a moment, in any startup, I'm sure you've had this, but, you hit a wall and you're sort of not sure how you're going to get through it. You get through that, but there's a moment where you aren't sure there's a turning point. What was that like for you?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi I think one of the challenging parts for me personally, at the beginning was, is that you come with an idea that you're going to focus 2019 2020 on biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and reconnecting people to nature. And the challenging part for me was that so many people around me were like, why? And why are you not talking about climate change or about carbon or doing footprint calculation?

And I think that's a challenge when you're in a startup is that there's there's so many thoughts and so many ideas. And how do you stick to one vision and try. And see if it works or not, but at least try. I think it's -- it's really challenging.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Once you got the funding and you were able to sort of maybe operate in a way that a startup can't without. Did you have to change the way you work in order to kind of scale and to kind of like add more projects? Was that an adjustment?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi So for us, it was a bit of a different way, because these pocket forest are funded forest by forest. People cannot really come to us and say, oh, I want to adopt a tree. No, because we plant as a whole.

And I think that was a very challenging point in the beginning because it's like, how are you going to find the right partners that want to do this?

And through my career and what I've done in the past, I was really fortunate to be able to forge these partnerships with brands. And they saw it -- really let me be very clear --They were actually absolutely visionary and trusting that we were going to build biodiversity and green infrastructure. There was no conversation about how many trees and are we going to offset or not? No. If you were to choose to plant with us, you were going to do that within a city and really bring that transformation.

And through that, we've actually been able to push forward this portfolio of pocket forests. And today it's really great because through that, through that proof of concept, whatever you want to call it, cities can come to us and say, wow, okay, you've done this and this and this there. Can you do this for us now?

And so eternally grateful to the partners that wanted to do this with us and take that leap of faith.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader You were talking about how important is for children to to feel soil that they need to learn to care. If I'm a parent listening to this, what are maybe 2 or 3 ways that I can sort of instill that love of nature in my kid that maybe I wouldn't think of otherwise.

Elise Van Middelem, SUGI Well, soil isn't dirty. We had many children that say, "I can't be dirty." And we're like "This is soil. It's not dirty, it's healthy soil."

And I think another thing is that when I see parents do that is just like. Take children out into nature, but let them do what they need to do.

And I think that's the beauty with the planting is that there's no rules. So they come to the field, the trees lay on the side and imagine, you know, it's not one type of tree, it's 23 different species in the UK. And if we plant 200m², 2000ft², 600 trees and we tell them, just go for it.

The first moment they're like, wait, what? Like, can we really let go? Five minutes later, it's like the trees are flying around, meaning like they're running around with the trees they're planting. And it's that just trust. The child actually understands nature much better than we do, you know?

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Is there a piece of advice that you've always been grateful for?

Elise Van Middelem, SUGi We talked about hitting walls before, right? And I was really fortunate to meet Satish Kumar last year in November. And at that point I felt very overwhelmed. The problem is so big, right? And what am I going to do by planting these couple of pocket forests? What does that really mean in the scope of things? And Satish said to me at that point he said, do not think about that. You can only do your best and you could only focus on what you do and what you do, do it with your whole heart and do it with your integrity and with love. The rest doesn't matter.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader That was Elise Van Middelem. Thanks so much to her and thanks so much to you for listening. Find a transcript of this episode, as well as transcripts from my colleague's podcast, Radio Davos at wef.ch/podcasts.

This episode of Meet the Leader was produced and presented by me, with Jere Johansson and Taz Kelleher as editor and Gareth Nolan driving studio production. That's it for now. I'm Linda Lacina with the World Economic Forum. Have a great day.