Dr Miyawaki’s greatness is to be seen in his belief that the discoveries of an academic, however insightful, have no value unless they are made available to the public and implemented for the greater common good. From the exhaustive mapping work he had completed, he knew that the next step was to work towards “creating real forests for protection against natural disasters and environmental conservation”. Starting from Nippon Steel in 1971, Dr Miyawaki helped large corporations vegetate industrial land within their premises.
His teachings set an example of how the receding space left to humanity can be effectively turned into a fruitful vegetative area in a short amount of time. Forests are Nature's greatest combatants against greenhouse gases, and help reduce the effects of rising emission levels faced by the planet. Today, he has built his forests in 1,700 locations both in and out of Japan and planted more than 40 million trees worldwide.