Partner with us · Microforest Collective

Costa Georgiadis and the Gardening Australia crew filming at the Watson Microforest.
Our CEO Mitch Porteous with Kristy McBain MP, Federal Member for Eden-Monaro.

As featured in

TEDx Canberra, Gardening Australia, ABC Radio National, The Guardian, Riotact

The idea

A forest the size of a tennis court can change a community

A microforest is a small, dense native forest on public land: a park, a school ground, an underused corner of a suburb. Local species are matched to the site and planted close together in properly prepared soil, using the Miyawaki method.

Planted this way, forests grow up to 10 times faster than conventional planting, can run up to 6°C cooler inside than the ground around them, and often see birds, insects and reptiles return within a season.

A local leader steps up
A school, community group, council or local organisation decides to create a microforest.
We provide the scaffolding
The knowledge, resources, guidance and systems that make the project possible.
The community makes it happen
They raise the funds, prepare the site and bring people together.
Everyone plants it
People physically create environmental change, together.

What we share

If your organisation cares about any of these, we should talk

Environment
Native habitat in the places people live, growing up to 10 times faster than conventional planting.
Community and connection
Neighbours plant, water and care for the forest together, and keep meeting there for years.
Education
Students plant a forest at their school and learn from it all year, with lessons mapped to the curriculum.
Resilience
Shade and cooler ground for hotter summers, and a local network that knows how to act together.
Leadership
Local leaders learn to plan, fundraise and bring people together, with our team beside them.

Built by practitioners

Microforest Collective grew out of a single community planting in Downer, ACT, in 2020. Watson and Queanbeyan followed, and in 2024 the Collective was formed so every new leader wouldn't have to start from scratch. Each of our four founders has led a microforest themselves.

Downer, ACT
After the 2019–20 bushfire summer, co-founder Edwina Robinson raised more than $23,000 from her Canberra neighbours and planted 1,800 native plants into a Downer dustbowl. Six years on, it is taller than the people who planted it.
On planting day
"Mum, I planted this. I created this. This is here because of me." Steph, a microforest volunteer, as told by Mitch Porteous at TEDx Canberra.

Schools

Schools are where environmental change becomes community change.

Students plant the forest and measure it as it grows.
Teachers get a living classroom for science, maths, English and geography.
Families get involved, and the whole neighbourhood sees it every day.
The forest stays, and each new class inherits it.

The schools program is underway. Wedgetail, the conservation fund founded by Lisa Miller and Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, funded its pilot, building the curriculum and reporting frameworks every school after Broulee will use.

A grown microforest with a children's play space in its clearing

Ways to partner

How partners take part

Communities bring the will to plant. Partners help us build what sits behind every forest: the guidance, tools, training and coordination that get a local leader from an idea to planting day.

Some partners bring funding. Some bring people, expertise, materials or reach. The strongest partnerships bring several of these together.

Fund
Help provide the core infrastructure that allows more communities to create microforests.
Mobilise
Bring employees, customers, members or networks into the movement, including on planting days.
Contribute
Share expertise, services, products, materials or professional capability.
Amplify
Use your communications, networks and influence to help more people discover what communities can create.

What your organisation gets

Your people, outdoors
A planting day your team will talk about for years.
A local legacy
A forest your community can see, visit and watch grow.
Outcomes you can report
Site-level numbers on plants, survival and growth.
A story worth telling
For your staff, customers and community.

Levels of support

Establish, from $10,000 a year
Backs one community or school from first idea to planting day, with a planting day for your team.
Grow, from $25,000 a year
Backs a cluster of forests in your region, with planting days, site-level results and a story to share.
Scale, from $50,000 a year
Takes the program to a new state or a network of schools, shaped with you from the start.

These are starting points for a conversation. We shape every partnership around what you want to achieve.

Book a chat Download the partner pack

Who's with us

The forests are growing. So is the network behind them.

Every microforest is delivered through collaboration between community, government and business.

The Property Collective
Founding partner
The Property Collective has supported the Microforest Collective since its inception. Grounded in the belief that we go further together, they bring practical depth across the property sector and a shared commitment to community and long-term urban renewal. Beyond our partnership, The Property Collective also plants a tree for every property they rent or sell, reinforcing their belief that thriving communities and a healthy environment go hand in hand.
Wedgetail
Schools program partner
Wedgetail, the conservation fund, backed our first national schools program, starting with the pilot at St Peter's Anglican College in Broulee.

Project partners

Project partners supply land, materials, funding or in-kind support to individual sites. At Evelyn Scott School in Denman Prospect, the ACT's first school microforest, they include Rotary Club of Canberra Sunrise and Capital Estate Developments.

Let's grow together

A forest the size of a tennis court can change a community

A local leader steps up

We provide the scaffolding

The community makes it happen

Everyone plants it

If your organisation cares about any of these, we should talk

Environment

Community and connection

Education

Resilience

Leadership

Built by practitioners

Schools are where environmental change becomes community change.

How partners take part

Fund

Mobilise

Contribute

Amplify

What your organisation gets

Your people, outdoors

A local legacy

Outcomes you can report

A story worth telling

Levels of support

Establish, from $10,000 a year

Grow, from $25,000 a year

Scale, from $50,000 a year

The forests are growing. So is the network behind them.

Project partners

Could we build something together?

Not ready to talk yet?