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The Compass: Under the Canopy: Forests of science and knowledge

Factual

Forests of science and knowledge

10/03/2021 GMT

Under the Canopy

BBC World Service - The Compass, Under the Canopy, Forests of science and knowledge

Radical new ways of recognising forests as communities of mutually supportive trees

How scientific research has offered radical new ways of recognising forests as communities of mutually supportive trees.

Writer Jessica J Lee, sets out to describe the myriad ways that forests operate in our lives and the life of the planet. She outlines the exciting developments that have taken place in our understanding of the ways forests work over recent decades, with science offering radical new ways of recognising these places as communities of mutually supportive trees rather than competitive spaces where individual trees fight one another for survival. She speaks with Peter Wohlleben who is one of the chief communicators of this ‘Wood Wide Web’ idea, and also expert on fungi Merlin Sheldrake about the crucial importance of mycorrhizzal networks in forest life. Jessica also hears from biologist Diana Beresford Kroeger and Haida leader Miles Richardson about how this new science is built on the back of much older, traditional knowledge held within indigenous communities.

Forest sounds appear courtesy of the 'Sounds of the Forest' project
 
Original musical composition: Erland Cooper
 
Spells written by Robert Macfarlane and these are read by Maxine Peake and the Bird sisters

Photo credit: Geoff Bird

The Compass: Under the Canopy

In this new three part series for ‘The Compass’ writer Jessica J. Lee, sets out to describe the myriad ways that forests operate in our lives and the life of the planet.

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