Forest Certification and Sustainable Forest Management Practices in the Takakuma Experiment Forest
Takakuma Experiment Forest, Faculty of Agriculture INOKURA Youji（Head of the training forest）・MAKINO Kousuke（Takakuma Training Forest Director）
https://ace1.agri.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/takakuma/Background and objectives of activities
Forest certification is given to forest operations that manage their forests sustainably and in consideration of the natural environment, and timber produced from certified forests will be sold as forest certified timber. The Takakuma Experiment Forest produces several thousand cubic meters of timber annually, which we intend to supply to wood processors who wish to obtain forest certified timber. In addition, we intend to make further use of the site as a place to educate students about the management of certified forests in their practical training. We would like to take this certification as an opportunity to review the forest resources, flora, and fauna of this training forest and focus on monitoring and other operations to fully utilize the valuable forest resources and conduct operations that take into consideration the natural environment for flora and fauna.
Summary of Activities
The Kagoshima University Faculty of Agriculture's Takakuma Experiment Forest has acquired SGEC forest certification (FM certification).
Forest certification is an initiative to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management through selective purchasing by consumers by having an independent, third-party organization assess whether appropriate and sustainable forest management is being conducted based on certain criteria, certifying forests that have been confirmed to be properly managed, and affixing certification labels to wood products produced from these forests. This initiative supports biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management through selective purchasing by consumers by certifying forests and affixing labels to wood products produced from these forests.
Expected Benefits
We will contribute to education, research, and the sustainable development of local communities by making maximum use of precious forest resources supported by more than 100 years of work by our predecessors.