Forest Management in Japan: Application Issues of Sustainable Forestry and the Potential of Improvement through Accredited Forest Certification

摘要

Forestry is, as claimed by William Street, chairman of the world’s largest forest certifier PEFC, more complex than rocket science. As the effectiveness of sustainable forest management in Japan is still being criticized by researchers worldwide, the motivation of this research study was to analyze, evaluate and discuss the main issues the Japanese government is struggling with in contrast to international forestry standards and efforts. Sustainable forest management is being promoted worldwide and understood as a crucial act to preserve nature and to respond to the negative effects of global warming. Historical background information confirmed that afforestation, reafforestation and rejuvenation activities shortly after WWII are responsible for Japan’s extremely uneven forest age structure. Insufficient forest care affected timber quality which decreased the overall productivity of forestry and also led to forest degradation. The majority of affected forestland is owned privately and involves natural forest and plantations. Small-scale forest ownership further complicates effective forest management. This is a real and not a constructed issue. The Japanese government promotes sustainable forest management and thinning with slight accomplishment. Especially the role of thinning as an instrument of forest care seems not be clearly addressed and could have mainly been used as a tool to increase carbon sinks for meeting the carbon emission obligations for the Kyoto Protocol. Japan sets very high future forestry goals and intends to double domestic forest production by 2020. However, without proper modernization of the wood processing infrastructure and an expansion of markets for thinned wood, reasonable success is questionable. The progress of implementing forest certification is slowing down because of little demand for certified wood and costs that further affect forestry productivity. However, it is strongly recommended to continue efforts towards proper forest certification as it has the potential to enhance forest owner management, improve forest supervision and national forest policy.