Abstract
This paper discusses the emerging roles of forest owners’cooperatives as key actors for promoting sustainable management and use of regional forest resources in the current phase of final felling and reforestation. Analysis of Forest Owners’Cooperative Statistics revealed that the center of their activities has shifted from forest management projects to timber production projects. By type of operation, both non-commercial and commercial thinning have declined, while operations have shifted toward timber production through clear-cutting and subsequent reforestation. In Kagoshima Prefecture, where clear-cutting and reforestation are progressing rapidly, the following characteristics were observed compared with national trends. Case studies of１０forest owners’cooperatives in Kagoshima Prefecture（excluding remote islands）showed that timber production through clear-cutting is increasing across regions, and that the core business has shifted from thinning to clear-cutting. In conclusion, forest owners’cooperatives will need to maintain cost awareness while gradually building a community framework for appropriate forest resource management in collaboration with diverse local stakeholders, and they will be required to assume central responsibility for the future of
forest resources.
