The Morino Chonai-Kai (Forest Neighborhood Association)

Japan is a country where forests cover two-thirds of the land area. However, the forest industry has been losing its vigor, and forest thinning work needed for maintaining healthy forests has not kept up. In Iwate Prefecture's Iwaizumi-cho, the municipality with the largest area on Honshu Island, forest thinning work has not been conducted as hoped, due to difficulties in covering costs. Forests help ease global warming, prevent floods and landslides, and support a diversity of plants and animals. Fresh water and clean air also come to us thanks to the functions of forests. The Morino Chonai-Kai proposes a new activity to support the environment, an activity based in the forests of Iwaizumi-cho which will ensure healthy forests for our future.

All companies need to use paper. The Morino Chonai-Kai proposes as a first step that companies switch some of their paper use to "Forest Thinning Support Paper." Efforts to help the environment are easy to promote when you start with paper, which is something used every day. The more companies that adopt this paper, the more it will help with forest thinning in Iwaizumi-cho. In order to meet the needs of "Forest Thinning Support Companies," Iwaizumi-cho guarantees the traceability of the thinning materials, feeding back to the companies information concerning which forest the thinning materials have come from. The Morino Chonai-Kai hopes that this new model for promoting forest thinning will take root in society.

Using "Forest Thinning Support Paper" increases costs for the Forest Thinning Support Companies by a small amount. However, because companies can see the value of using this paper as part of their contributions to the environment, we hope there will be an increase in the number of companies choosing to do this as a sound investment. For this reason, the Morino Chonai-Kai discloses all of its costs. As of July 2006, six companies have already joined this program. The Morino Chonai-Kai will continue to work to ensure healthy forests for our future, building up the number of Supporting Companies, while treasuring our valuable face-to-face relationships with the people in related companies and in Iwaizumi-cho.