These forest gardens have the potential for addressing current and upcoming challenges of our time like-

Growing our own food not only ends hunger (SDG 2) but provides access to fresh, diverse and nutritious food year round.

Gardening work involves physical and mental activity in nature, promoting good health and well-being (SDG 3) while simultaneously producing human food.

Human-managed, local food production systems rich in biodiversity are resilient to changes in climate, ensuring food, nutritional and health security.

Growing one’s food also addresses issues of processed and packaged foods, plastic pollution, avoidable carbon footprints, hidden poisons like agro-chemicals and food additives, etc.

There is growing disconnect of today’s generation with our culture and nature.

Growing our food helps in reconnecting us with our ancestral roots and indigenous wisdom.

Meeting food needs locally reduces our dependence on high input food grown using monocultures, machines and agrochemicals in an extractive manner depleting biodiversity, soil fertility and water resources (both underground water and surface water reservoirs).

One third of food grown worldwide is wasted due to supermarkets, restaurants, consumers and linear supply chains. Growing food locally and eating consciously not only avoids wastage but reduces the pressure on land and natural resources used for human food production.

Famines and related starvation are due to human mis-management of resources rather than because of natural disasters as generally thought. Local food production systems, managed by communities are effective in mitigating these human-led situations.

It is often argued population boom is contributing to food insecurity heavily as the land is getting scarce for per capita food production. However, we will argue otherwise, i.e., it is not how many we are but what we do with our land which matters! From history till contemporary times, we find examples where humans have successfully tended their land while living nature producing abundance of food for everyone.

Forest gardens provide microclimate and refuge for local flora and fauna enabling ecosystem regeneration by successively giving more yields.
Along with edible plants, growing native species helps in meeting human needs of medicinal plants, timber and other building materials, fibers and bark, natural dyes and colors, materials for various arts and crafts, etc.

These forest gardens act as continuous spaces of learning enabling holistic development of kids and grown-ups alike.