Status and Trends of Forest Environmental Tax for Wildlife Management in Japanese Prefectures

Abstract

Damage by wildlife is serious challenge for the Japanese forestry and agriculture alike. Prefectural Forest Environmental Taxes (PreFET) are used for wildlife conservation and management in certain prefectures. We reviewed the status of the tax use and conducted interviews with four prefectural governments. The results revealed 18 out of the 37 prefectures with own PreFET had projects related to wildlife protection and management. The usage ranged from population management, damage management, and habitat management. PreFET budget partially supported policies on wildlife protection and management. Such policies should be pursued by the national government, prefectures, municipalities, and local communities in an integrated manner, and those policies are not necessarily supported by national subsidies. Based on the interviews, we identified that PreFET budgets are complementary to the subsidies provided by the relevant ministry and agencies (i.e., Environment and Forestry). Especially, PreFET budget supported new policies and policies which were not supported by other budgets. For example, hiring instructors for wildlife management and survey for making specified wildlife control plan are implemented by the PreFET budget.