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Abstract:
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"Commons forest management faces many difficulties in this era of urbanization, in which people have fewer interactions with nature and society becomes more individualistic. In 2011, we conducted a survey of peoples practices and opinions regarding commons forest management in 248 communities within a city in central Japan. We found that 92 communities own their forests through neighborhood council ownerships, temple/shrine ownerships, group ownerships, etc. Of the 47 communities that reported ownership sizes, 83% owned less than 50 ha. A majority of the responding communities hope to improve the quality of the forests by tending them, and to pass on this tradition to future generations. A majority are less inclined to use the forests for recreation purposes or to let outside volunteer groups manage the forests. The three most desired functions of forests are the purification of air and mitigation of noise, creation of a water resource reservoir, and landslide and flood control. The three least desired points are symbolization of neighborhood council, timber production, and mushroom/mountain vegetable cultivation. Factor analyses and other multivariate analyses were conducted to extract significant underlying factors influencing the attitudes of the communities and to find potential interactions among the identified factors. These patterns in the visions and desired functions of forests embody the conundrum of commons forest management in contemporary Japan. The visions for forests represent traditional, agricultural values, focused on monetary benefits. The desired functions have more to do with the necessities of an infrastructure system rather than serving as a source of material resources. The discrepancies found here indicate the need for new commons forest management measures, which may include more active involvement of local governments for managing forests as part of an urban infrastructure."
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