Abstract
Increased municipal workloads and personnel shortages are problems affecting Private Forest Management Entrustment System (FMES) that began in 2019. Although wide-area cooperation could be an effective countermeasure for these problems, there are a few studies on the structure of such cooperation and its impact. This study clarified the role of wide-area cooperation within the FMES and its structure among various entities, targeting the Kiso region of Nagano prefecture. Interviews with officials of Nagano prefecture, Kiso Regional Union, six municipalities and three forest owner’s cooperatives were conducted. Results show that the Kiso Regional Union is responsible for overall local governments’practical implementation of the FMES and is central to its operation. While the six towns and villages formulate their own plans, Nagano prefecture provides support and forestry cooperatives implement forest operations. The introduction of the wide-area cooperation have reduced six towns and villages workloads, reduced overall costs, improved efficiency of information access, accumulated know-how, and made progress in their operations. Thus, it can be inferred that, overall, the introduction of wide-area cooperation into this system will contribute to a reduction in municipal workloads. However, ongoing challenges of staffing the Kiso Regional Union and increased workloads of other organizations interviewed were observed.
