Yakushima Sugi Gene Conservation Project--Scientific Hands Connecting Forests of Eternity to the Future March 1996

Yakushima Sugi Gene Conservation Project--Scientific Hands Connecting Forests of Eternity to the Future March 1996
In the 1990s, Japan was in the midst of a period of overcoming pollution and entering a new era in which "coexistence with nature" became a new national policy theme. The Forestry Agency's "Yakushima Cedar Genetic Preservation Project," which involved a group of giant cedar trees on Yakushima Island, attracted attention as an attempt to symbolize the fusion of the philosophy of nature conservation and science and technology. The Forestry Agency has begun to take cuttings from 21 giant trees, including the Jomon cedar on Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture. This was not just a mere attempt to protect giant trees, but a scientific challenge to preserve the life information of the trees themselves for future generations from the perspective of "preserving genetic resources.

At the time, Yakushima was experiencing a surge in domestic and international tourists in the aftermath of its registration as a World Natural Heritage site (December 1993). The soil on the mountain trails leading to the Jomon cedars was deteriorating due to pressure from the climbers, and the problems of garbage and lack of toilets were becoming more serious. Under these circumstances, the genetic preservation project was positioned as a shift from "preservation for show" to "preservation for tell. The idea of not only protecting the Jomon cedar, an object of tourism and faith, but also preserving its genetic diversity and passing it on to the future as scientific data was a clear departure from conventional nature conservation.

Many of the cedars on Yakushima have long-lived individuals that can be several thousand years old, making them extremely valuable from a scientific standpoint. There are various theories on the age of the Jomon cedar rings, with a wide range of estimates ranging from 2000 to 7200 years. This is due to the fact that the hollowed interior makes accurate measurement difficult, but in any case, there is no doubt that these are some of the world's rarest and longest-lived trees. The Forestry Agency's preservation project was intended to preserve this "longevity gene" and use it to develop seeds and seedlings that can respond to future environmental changes and for ecological research. The Forestry Agency's approach was to reevaluate nature from a scientific perspective and protect the trees not as cultural assets, but as "living heritage.

Another reason was that the entire environmental administration at that time was shifting its direction to "biodiversity preservation," and the Japanese government ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in 1993. The Yakushima Cedar Gene Conservation Project was one of the earliest cases in which the principles of the Convention were embodied in domestic policies. In other words, Yakushima was the stage for a qualitative shift in Japan's nature conservation policy from "protection of tourism resources" to "conservation of genetic resources.

This effort also had an impact on local researchers and residents. At the Yakushima Nature Museum and local high schools, environmental education was conducted through DNA analysis of cedar trees and observation of seedling growth, and a "culture of passing on the genes of the forest to the future" began to be nurtured by the community as a whole. As a rare example of science and technology being connected to the local community, the Yakushima cedar genetic preservation project was later linked to the National Biodiversity Strategy and the Genetic Resource Bank Initiative.

The Jomon cedar symbolizes the question of how human beings should live each moment in time, and this project in 1996 was not merely an attempt to protect the trees, but also an attempt to recount in the language of science the "responsibility to pass on nature" to future generations. Protecting forests means preserving not only the life we have now, but also its "potential." The quiet voice of the forests of Yakushima heralded the dawn of a new era in environmental administration.