Abstract
Using the results of a questionnaire survey conducted among 123 water utilities nationwide, the current status of forest management by water utilities in Japan was clarified. The results showed that while in the 1900s, the involvement of water utilities in forest management was mainly related to land ownership, since the 1990s, new initiatives such as “support projects for forest management by citizen volunteers” and “cooperation with corporate social and environmental activities” have been expanding and diversifying. The study also confirmed that the number of forests directly owned and managed by the government was increasing. In the cases where forests were directly owned and managed, the reasons for the start of forest management differed according to the age of the start of management: in the early 1900s, the background was tight water pollution due to forest devastation, while in the 1980s, many started management due to drought, and later, from the 1990s onward, the number of responses such as commemorative projects increased. The number of responses was increasing. The above suggests that social factors that may influence the development of forest management by water utilities vary greatly from period to period, not to mention the situation in each region.
