What are the effects of a Tiny Forest®?

In 2015 IVN Environmental Education planted its first Tiny Forest in the Netherlands. Since than the number of Tiny Forests and our impact increases with every forest we plant. In short the impact of Tiny Forest is:

• IVN has planted 111 Tiny Forests between December 2015 and January 2021
• 10.000 school children, 700 teachers and 600 local residents participated in planting, maintaining and enjoying our forests. Every Tiny Forest is adopted by a local school, who use the forest as an outdoor classroom.
• Scientist from Wageningen University and Research (WENR) and citizen scientists have discovered 595 different species of animals and plants in Tiny Forests across the Netherlands.
• Wageningen University and Research (WENR) established that one 200 m2 Tiny Forest sequesters 250 kilograms of CO2 per year. That’s how much CO2 you emit when you drive from Amsterdam to Barcelona by car.

Below you can read more about the impact of Tiny Forest. We feel that our biggest impact is made by helping school children and local communities plant and maintain their own forest. Children are the Tiny Forest Rangers. They monitor the growth, show people around and take lessons in the outdoor classroom. This way we educate the ecosystem restorers of the future.

But our impact is not just a feel-good story, we also have numbers to back up our story. We monitor the number of Tiny Forests we plant and the number of people we engage. And scientists from Wageningen University & Research (WENR) monitor the effects of the Tiny Forest on biodiversity, CO2  sequestration, thermal comfort and water retention.

How many Tiny Forests have we planted?

In December 2015 we planted our first Tiny Forest of the Netherlands in Darwinpark in Zaanstad. The program has been running for 5 years now and is still expanding at a rapid pace. In November 2020 we planted the 100th Tiny Forest and we expect to plant our 200th forest in 2022. Check out all of our forests in the map below. The map will be update regularly.

Growth of the Tiny Forest program in numbers

Tiny Forest is not just about planting trees, but also about engaging and educating school children, teachers and local communities. The table below shows the number of Tiny Forests and the number of school children, teachers and locals that participate in our program.

Growth of the Tiny Forest in Zaanstad

Tiny Forest are fastgrowing native forests. This is a timelapse video that shows the growth of Tiny Forest Zaanstad in 2016 and 2017. Two years of growth in two minutes, enjoy!

Scientific Research – the Effect of Tiny Forest

In February 2017 scientists from WENR started to monitor the effects of our first Tiny Forest in the municipality of Zaanstad. This study ran for a year. Thanks to the Dutch Postcode Lottery we were able to start a four year research program in February 2018, that is executed by the same scientists. In this study they monitor the effect of eleven Tiny Forests on biodiversity, CO2 sequestering, thermal comfort and water retention. The scientists from WENR got help from 100 citizen scientist in 2019 and 2020, who assisted with the monitoring of the biodiversity. What have we learned about the effects of Tiny Forest so far?

Effects biodiversity

• In 2017 scientist from WENR discovered 176 different species of animals in the Tiny Forest in Zaanstad. Download the full report
• In 2019 citizen scientists trained by WENR discovered 595 different species of animals and plants in seven different Tiny Forests.
• On the 1st of April 2021 WENR will present new data on the biodiversity. We will update this page with the results.
• In march 2022 the final report of the study will be published on this website.

CO2 sequestering

• In 2020 scientist from WENR concluded that a standard sized Tiny Forest sequesters 127,5 kg of CO2 per year. They expect this to rise to 250 kg of CO2 per year as the forests grow older.
• Tiny Forest Zaanstad (planted December 2015) sequestered 631 kg of CO2 in 2020.
• The table below shows the amount of carbon the different Tiny Forests sequestered in 2020.
• Read full report on study in Dutch or read the Protocol for inventory of Tiny Forests

Effects on thermal comfort and water retention

The preliminary results of this study will be presented on April 1^st 2021. After the presentation we will update the website.

Read more

• What is a Tiny Forest?
• Tiny forests in other countries
• Tiny Forest in the media
• Resources and downloads
• Tiny Forest®: a registered trademark