Recently, efforts have been made throughout the world to realize suitable forest management, and appropriate approaches toward this end have been sought at the practical level. One of the most remarkable movements is the Model Forest (MF) movement which was advocated by Canada at the Earth summit in 1992 and aimed at realizing sustainable forest management focusing on citizen participation. The MF movement has since attracted a great deal of world-wide attention, with Kyoto Prefecture also having begun its own work regarding MF management. In this paper, for developing a style of MF management suitable for Kyoto prefecture, we considered (1) what MF is and (2) the present condition of citizen's groups whose activities have something to do with the natural environment of Kyoto Prefecture. The results were as follows: (1) the role of citizens' groups in MF management in Kyoto Prefecture was developed, and (2) points which should be considered when MF is developed in the near future were identified.

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The purpose of this study is to reveal the common issues for achieving sustainable forest management in Japan by analyzing "Corrective Action Requests(CARs)" raised in the main certification public reports of the 24 Japanese forests with FSC certification. A total of 218 CARs were raised in the main assessments. 42% of CARs were raised to cover systematic issue, such as developing the long-term management plan and monitoring. 35% affect the environmental sector and key issue was the create buffer zone adjacent to stream.13% were the social CARs where the improvement of forest workers' safety was required. The economic CARs account for 10% required to achieve sustainable yield level. The analysis of the effectiveness was done on the basis of the 20 forests where verification by the annual audit was available. The sum of CARs in the latest annual audit reports was about one-third of that in the main assessment reports, which reveals that FSC certification improved the forests management of these forests. In addition, the result of this study indicated the necessary to adjust the FSC principles and criteria to the reality of Japanese forestry.

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Seasonal and yearly changes in head count, behavior pattern and utilized vegetation were observed in sika deer (Cervus nippon) by spotlight census in the Misen Mountains, Shimane Prefecture. Deer numbers were greatest in October, least in December, and remained constant from March to July 2002. The group composition in spring to summer was characterized by a single female or a group of females with juveniles. Male deer were active in autumn, when the herd was composed of single males or harems made up of a single male and a group of females. Sika deer were observed frequently in coniferous and broadleaved forests and on grassland. Their location depended on the distribution of vegetation along the spotlight census routes. Sika deer selectively grazed grassland in preference to other vegetation. The density of sika deer since 2002 has shown a decreasing trend in the Taisha and Izumo areas, but has increased in the Hirata area and expanded to the Kohoku area.

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The purpose of the present paper is to estimate the debris flow control using check dams after removing debris from the check storages based on the results of the numerical analysis of a model torrent and an actual one. A one-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted in order to investigate variations in debris flow characteristics along a river reach with check dams. According to the analytical results, check dams are effective for reducing sediment transport when the initial bed slope of the deposition area at the upstream region of the dam is milder than that of equilibrium slope of debris flow, even if the area is filled with sediment. Removing debris from the check storage is much more effective for controlling debris flow, but the priorities for removing works for a number of check dams must be carefully determined when considering the sediment runoff process and characteristics throughout the torrent.

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[in Japanese]

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The volunteer movement and activities concerned with community forests have been succeeded. Attempts of social welfare utilizing have been also begun to practice. However, civil practice cases utilizing community forests beside city area or residential quarters have not commenced yet. Therefore, this research studied the forest therapy utilizing the secondary forest beside residential quarter in Kobe City and showed the effects. The contents of the workshops were: taking care of the woods, nature games, forest walking, and relaxation. At each workshop, participants' mood changes submitted the decrease of tension, depression, fatigue, anxiety and enhance of refreshment. Also, the participants with mental retardation, developmental disorders, and psychological disabilities practiced forest therapy two times per month. Participants with mental or developmental retardation showed their hyperactivity decreased and participants with psychological disabilities enhanced their self-esteem. Both participants stimulated their communication ability according to adjusting woods. These changes suggest the forest amenity stimulate the participants by adjustment of the woods.

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The effect of soil and water conservation works on the runoff was analyzed by three tank models: the 1981 model, 1983 model and 2000 model, which reproduced the runoff for the year before the conservation works was executed, the year of completion, and eighteen years after completion, respectively. These three models were used to analyze the same rainfall data, and the results were compared. Both the flood control and drought control functions were temporarily lowered during the conservation works. Eighteen years after the conservation works, the flood control and drought control function was better than that before the executed.

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