Abstract
Some argue that expansive afforestation is a failure because it has undermined forests’public benefit functions. In addition, the future use of planted forests must be considered. However, research on expansive afforestation still faces several challenges: unorganized classification by jurisdiction, lack of understanding of the “area of expanded afforested land,” and loss of information about the local people involved in afforestation. This paper re-examines the subject of expansive afforestation by understanding of expansive afforestation by jurisdiction and estimating the area of expansive afforested lands. First, we reconfirmed that the characteristics of the land prior to afforestation differed by jurisdiction and argued that it is important to take a jurisdiction-specific perspective when considering the future use of expansive afforested lands. Next, despite some problems in the estimation formula, it was estimated that the area of expansive afforested lands as of 1980, which were planted after 1960, was approximately 4 million hectares (approximately 16% of the forest area), of which approximately 2 million hectares was privately owned. In addition, it was confirmed that expansive afforestation in former unplanted areas was higher in the private sector than in the state or public sector.
