Pocket Forests – Eco-Congregation Ireland

Pocket Forests is a Dublin-based social enterprise working with communities to grow small areas of native trees and shrubs in urban areas. This project links ideas about human health and healthy ecosystems, exploring how our wellness is intertwined with the wellbeing of our natural world.

As a nature-based solution to the climate and biodiversity crises forests are powerful tools. Research also supports their benefits to human wellbeing. Urban populations, and even communities in rural towns, often live in nature-deprived environments and have unequal access to these habitats. The Catholic Bishop’s commitment to give 30 percent of land to nature opens up spaces within rural towns where communities are keen to learn how to create nature-friendly spaces. Pocket Forests can be part of that process. The potential
benefits of trees in urban areas are well-researched.

Street trees close to the home may reduce the risk of depression: Researchers show positive effect of urban nature on mental health — ScienceDaily).

It is essential that nature is given a bigger share of urban environments as climate change and biodiversity loss continue. The Pocket Forests team provides hands-on education and empowerment around the beauty and importance of Irish native trees and shrubs in preserving biodiversity, ameliorating flooding, sequestering carbon and creating healthy outdoor wellness resources. The hope is to share the stories of forests to a multi-generational audience, rebuilding connections to the natural world and creating a paradigm shift in thinking about how healthy towns and cities can be created in the future with small forests at their heart.

There is an exciting opportunity with the church’s commitment to nature but barriers exist which can prevent faith-based communities from taking the step into practical action. The logistics and know-how needed to create a space which is filled with biodiversity and which can be enjoyed by parishioners and the wider public as a contemplative and restorative space is often lacking. The will is clearly there but there is a deficit in terms of skills and a gap in terms of education. Pocket Forests can be part of the solution to this gap.