Replying to the changes in national policy for forest management, Kanagawa Prefecture devised a plan to manage forests of the 21st century. In 1997, the office started a program called “Nurturing Water Source Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture 水源の森林づくり事業.” Kanagawa has 95000 ha of forests which is 39% of our prefecture. Out of these, 11% is owned by the national government, 27% is by the prefectural office, and 3% is for municipalities. The rest, 59%, is private property. Because of market condition of logs and wood products, and aging population, this 59% has been neglected for some time. By the end of the 20th century, they reached to be hazardous enough for land failure. So, the prefecture started to subsidize forestry activity especially for private forests surrounding 3 dams, Shiroyama 城山, Miyagase 宮ケ瀬, and Miho 三保, which are water source for tap water in Kanagawa. i.e. “Nurturing.” The help the Office devised is roughly consisted of 3 kids of policies. First, landlords or cooperatives contracted with landlords receive monetary support for their management activity. Second, the Prefecture makes a contract with landlords and engages in forestry directly. In this case, when available, the profit earned from the job is of the landlords. The third policy is land purchasing which often occurs as a methodology of inheritance taxes. When we walk in a forest near a dam for Kanagawa, we often encounter with sign boards explaining “This forest is defined as a water source forest, and under a prefectural contract of such-a-such for management.” They are in a part of this program.
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| The
board stating the forest here is in Nurturing Water Source Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture program. The place is near Shiroyama Dam. |
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| This forest is like this. |
At the same time, the office and the academia decided to have a baseline for implementing the policy of Kyoto Protocol (COP3) in Tanzawa-Oyama area. Why Tanzawa-Oyama? Hakone 箱根 is a National Park so that office in charge of managing the place is the national government, i.e. out of the reach of prefectural office. Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-national Park 丹沢大山国定公園 is under the management of prefectural government. Moreover, the area has been a play-ground for university professors in Megalopolis Tokyo for more than a century. It was a familiar place for researchers. From 1994, they comprehensively studied Tanzawa-Oyama area once more and in 1999 published “Conservation Plan forTanzawa-Oyama 丹沢大山保全計画.“ The plan was based on scientific findings and stated current condition of the area, overall objective of the prefectural conservation plan, and the target to be achieved after the completion of proposed projects. It defined the objective of the policy for the area to enhance biodiversity, and advocated mobilization of civil society and scientific monitoring.
In 2006, these two approaches of prefectural policy converged into a general plan, called “50 Year Plan for Regeneration of Forests in Kanagawa Prefecture かながわ森林再生50年構想.” Well, the validity of this plan is supposed to be until 2056. OK. The plan took zoning approach, and defined 3 kinds of forests in Tanzaw-Oyama area, Hakone, and water source forests around the dams. One is the forests of ASL 800m and up majority of which are in national and quasi-national parks. This is the area where overpopulation of deer ravaged natural vegetation + damages of acid rains observed some 30 years ago. Consequently, as of 2006, there, wild Japanese beeches (Fagus crenata) and Japanese firs (Abies firma) were dying and their seedlings were devoured by deer. In order to stop further deterioration and then to make the area more biodiverse, the plan started to build deer fences and intentionally introduce seedlings nurtured from the seeds harvested from the area. From 2012, the Prefecture hired wild-life rangers who specialize in hunting around the peaks of Tanzawa mountains. Do you remember trekking route around the peak of Mt. Oyama 大山 (ASL 1252m)? There are lots of deer fences and grating floors in order to stop deer enter the area to eat firs and beeches. They are examples of the policy based on the 50 Year Plan.
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| Deer
fence protecting baby trees inside, along a trekking route from Kohtakji Temple 広沢寺 to Mt. Oyama |
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| Grating floors cover trekking route for Mt. Oyama. |
The second area is between 300m to 800m ASL where water source forests dominate. This is the area in which massive afforestation was done by the early 1970s. They are now emitting pollens every spring for hay fever among city folks in metropolis. Prefecture decided to categorize the area in two parts. One is 200m inside from the both sides of forestry roads, and another is the rest. The forests along forestry roads are kept for forestry. Since around 2010 the afforested cedars and cypresses planted 70 years ago are reaching to the age of harvesting so that the prefecture supports commercial logging, or engaging in it directly, as a continuation of nurturing water source forests policy. After deforesting the area to harvest, they plant seedlings of pollen-less or lower pollen cedars and cypresses as a cycle of sustainable forestry. The afforested forests beyond 200m from forestry roads are thinned and introduced seedlings of broad-leaved trees encircled by deer fences. The aim is to create biodiverse forests with both coniferous and broad-leaved trees of rich forest floors receiving sufficient sunshine thanks to the thinning. The actual works to achieve the target are Forests of Growing 成長の森 project and activities of volunteer groups, including Kanagawa Association of Forest Instructors, for forest managements in the area.
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| A job site for forestry along Hadano Forestry Road 秦野峠林道 |
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| Forests
of Growing in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林. 10 years ago, the prefecture deforested cypresses and planted broad-leaved deciduous trees within the deer fence, with funding from families of new-born babies. The trees inside are teenagers now, and growing. |
The third area is below ASL 300m where human communities engage in agriculture, and housing development occur, i.e. Satoyama area 里山. Er … Yokohama’s Citizen Forests are program managed by the City of Yokohama, a national ordinance-designated city whose independence from prefectural government is guaranteed. So, management of, say, Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 which is, I would say, the finest example of Satoyama Forest of Yokohama is not directly covered by this 50 Years Plan … but scientifically established targets and methodology for biodiversity in Satoyama forest is the same both for Niiharu and for rural areas in Kanagawa prefecture. Volunteers from neighbors engage in thinning, mowing, pruning, planting, and monitoring forests located next to agricultural fields and rice paddies to restore and develop biodiversity, and to provide nice relaxing place for communities. The nature parks near city centers of Kanagawa are often in this category (; I’ll report them later this year 😄).
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| A scenery of Satoyama forest in Atsugi City 厚木 |
The prefectural office coordinates marketing of logs harvested from any of these 3 areas as a part of industrial policy for sustainable forestry. One day one of prefectural officers told us “You see, Kanagawa Prefecture is the second largest market of wood products in Japan, next to Tokyo. Considering the transportation costs for logs from mountains, Kanagawa’s forest in our backyard has definite advantage. If done well, we can create sustainable forest management in the long run.” He has a point. The forests covered in the 50 Year Plan are also scientifically and systematically monitored by groups of academics and civil society organizations to measure the effect of policy execution. They form Committee for Rejuvenation of Tanzawa-Oyama 丹沢大山再生委員会 (whose office is in Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center) to engage in civil society involvement of forest management, monitoring of the program, and spreading information in the progress of the 50 Year Plan. Funding-wise, especially for the management of water source forests, Kanagawa prefecture established in 2007 an ear-marked taxation, named “Tax for Conserving the Environment of Water Source 水源環境保全税.” For dwellers of Yokohama, it means we pay (1) Green tax みどり税 for the City, and (2) Water Source Tax for the Prefecture. From 2024, national government will charge Forest Environment Tax 森林環境税 for every tax payer = roughly 3000 yen (=$30; 1000 yen each) per year in order to manage forests in Japan.
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| One scenery
during a 2018 forum presenting civil society monitoring results of the 50 Year Plan. |
Whether this is too much taxation could be a matter of opinion. Recalling for almost 70 years we’ve deforested forests world-wide to build home-sweet-homes in suburbs of Tokyo while neglecting the backyard forests in our prefecture, current taxes might simply say “There’s no free lunch in our life, mate.” Nonetheless, during the process of legislation, those politicians sent from cities to the Diet (Japanese national legislation) pushed back the rural demand, and established legally bound condition in the usage of budget endorsed by Forest Environment Tax. Thanks to their pressure, the national government shall distribute money according to the size of population. i.e. Large cities with far less forest acreage receive the biggest budget allocation from Forest Environment Tax. We Lovers of Niiharu Citizen Forest in Yokohama could simply glee for the arrangement, but those volunteer organizations do thinning and pruning around ASL 600m ASL Tanzawa mountains have complicated opinion about this. Sure, it’s better than nothing to have a new funding for activities, but … So far, downtowns are planning to use the new budget, which is started to be distributed from 2020, earlier than the actual taxation, for purchasing woods harvested domestically. This is one of the allowed usages of the fund, and expected to stimulate forestry activity of the private sector that is now under heavy subsidies, like by the 50 Year Plan of Kanagawa Prefecture. New national tax is in the end an industrial policy to resurrect market for domestic woods, I suppose. Will it be enough to guarantee the original motivation of the 50 Year Plan, the spirit of COP5 of Kyoto Protocol?
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| I
think those woods here are imported from somewhere … |
In this regard, Kanagawa Prefecture has Kanagawa Plan for Biodiversity かながわ生物多様性計画. Since 2016, the policy covers the entire river basins of the prefecture, city forests of population centers, and Miura Peninsula 三浦半島, in addition to the original target area of the 50 Year Plan. These days, the activities of Committee for Rejuvenation of Tanzawa-Oyama are sometimes mentioned in this context. The 50 Year Plan itself may be evolving into something different from the initial idea of 2006 … Hmmm … 50 years are long, but it’s minimum for a cedar in Kanagawa to be sizable enough as a good building material. Keynes is damned right to say in the long run we’re all dead, but human’s long run is a short run for a forest. Who knows in the “long” run the result of possible changes in Japanese consumption behavior for woods thanks to new national tax for forest management. At least we try to think about forests in 50 years’ span, beyond our Keynes’ standard. Probably that’s something for humans who’ll be dead sooner or later before a forest takes a new shape we hope to see. Don’t you think?
If you find an environmental issues
in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation
Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
You can send an enquiry to them by
clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/
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