Nature of Africa

In the United Kingdom, for almost 20 years now, a compelling new consumer movement has been underway. Natural burial grounds — where people are buried in biodegradable containers, without formaldehyde-based embalming fluid or synthetic ingredients, and returned to the earth to compost into soil nutrients with a forest of trees marking the spot—are springing up across this island nation.

Since 2005, when I first began documenting this trend, dozens (if not hundreds) of sites offering some form of natural burial have emerged in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada, with other countries coming on fast. Citizen-driven movements in support of natural burial can now be found in Europe, China, Japan, Germany, and Africa.