Bald Mountains and Village Resource Management

Abstract

  Hageyama no Kenkyu [A Study of Bald Mountains] by Chiba Tokuji revealed that bald mountains, which were mostly communal land of the village, were a result of excessive utilization of firewood and grass. On the other hand, the Chiba study did not investigate the relation of resource management and over-utilization in individual villages. Therefore, it did not clarify why village communities, which ought to have established practices for communal management of resources, allowed the denuding of mountains, and how the subsequent restoration of vegetation was achieved.

 

  In light of the above, this paper is based on field work conducted in Minamitsuda Village, Gamo-gun, Omi Province (present day Minamitsudacho, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture)

 

  Fuel resources in the communal mountain of Minamitsuda, which constituted the bulk of the forest there, were seriously depleted compared to the size of the population during the low vegetation period from the early modern period to the Meiji Era. However, the extent of utilization increased gradually during the vegetation restoration period from the Taisho Era. The denuding of the mountain there was due to intrinsic problems in the management rules of the communal mountain (no regulation of firewood gathering). It was found that vegetation was restored with the population decline from the late Meiji Period.

 

  The balding of the mountain and the persistence of this condition was not the result of gathering activities deviating from resource management norms or unrestrained utilization due to the collapse of the resource management system. In the case of Minamitsuda, firewood gathering that denuded the mountain was within the bounds of management norms. It was found that the bald mountain itself was under the villageʼ s management.