Hands that Link Forests and People - Forest Thinning Regeneration Project in Hokuto City (2007)

Hands that Link Forests and People - Forest Thinning Regeneration Project in Hokuto City (2007)

In the mid-2000s, Japan's planted forests (cedar and cypress planted after World War II) were all coming up for main cutting, while demand for domestic timber was stagnant due to the price of imported timber, and lack of care was becoming serious in many areas. In 2005, the government and the Forestry Agency launched the "Ki-zukai Campaign" to encourage the use of domestic timber, calling for the promotion of wood construction and the use of wood in daily life. This campaign is positioned as a "national movement" that simultaneously addresses the lack of care for forests, the risk of landslides, and the need to address the issue of sinks.

Around 2007, against the backdrop of this national trend and the need for sink measures under the Kyoto Protocol, Hokuto City in Yamanashi Prefecture decided to launch a community-based scheme to utilize thinned wood. The city has set up a system to directly match forest owners with users such as woodworkers, furniture makers, and construction workers, thereby promoting the re-distribution of abandoned thinned wood. By taking advantage of its proximity to the Tokyo metropolitan area and linking it to urban craft culture and architectural demand, the project aimed to rediscover the value of timber, which had tended to be disposed of as fuel or waste, as "useful beauty.

In 2009, the Forestry Agency formulated the "Forest and Forestry Revitalization Plan," a policy aimed at achieving a self-sufficiency rate of over 50% in lumber. The plan called for a shift from a concrete society to a "wood-based society" based on the consolidation of operations, human resource development, and the development of downstream processing and distribution. Hokuto City's idea of circulating the supply and use of thinned timber in the region was in line with the national policy trend.

At the same time, the introduction of forest environment taxes at the municipal level spread, and in Ishikawa Prefecture, tax revenues have been allocated to thinning and water source forest development since FY2007. Sharing with local residents the fact that neglecting degraded forests increases the risk of landslides, the prefecture has laid the groundwork for "local forest protection" through tours and promotional activities. In recent years, Hokuto City has also been using the Forest Environment Concession Tax to allocate funds for local forest maintenance and human resource development, and the 2007 experiment is part of a system to "circulate local forests throughout the community.

Hokuto City's intermediary system was the nexus of three overlapping contexts: promoting the use of domestic timber, addressing the absorption of wood resources, and reorganizing the local culture. Taking advantage of its geographical proximity to the city, Hokuto City has built up a small cycle that continues from thinning to distribution, woodworking and construction, and local branding. This "down-to-earth green design" is also applicable to today's green woodwork and the conversion of public buildings to wood.