Mountain villages suffer from the depression of industries such as agriculture and forestry industries, the lack of public facilities for daily living, and the fragility of social organization. For the depression of industries such as agriculture and forestry industries and the lack of public facilities for daily living, various measures were taken. However, for the fragility of social organization, particular measures were not taken. As a result, many local societies are on the verge of collapse. To revitalize these societies, it is necessary to promote the society change which forms new identities in these societies. And "endogenous development" plays an important role to promote this society change. "Endogenous development" exists on a network of local inhabitants, and this network is tied up in "thought (bonds) " that is going to protect a local inhabitants common "important thing". The stronger such "thought" to protect an "important thing" becomes, the more vibrant will be the activities to protect an "important thing". And the more vibrant such activities to protect an "important thing" becomes, the more "local resources (the commons) " will be required.

View full abstract

In Eastern Area of Shiga prefecture, several forestry enterprises carry out their operations in overlapping area each other and Forest Owners' Cooperative have negative feeling for intensive forest management policy promoted by national government. Forestry extension agents have addressed extension service while they do other duties of grant programme and there has rarely been direct extension service to forest owners. In such a situation, the agents continue enlightenment activities for enabling Forest Owners' Cooperative to build up trustful relations with forest owners and carry timbers out effectively by making use of information of grant programme and forest policy. From now on, government have to establish organization structure and forest policy in which Forestry extension agents can keep direct contact to forest owner and adjust interests between several enterprises.

View full abstract

Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes (Berk.) Pegler) were cultivated using sawdust medium containing test water to which heavy metals and other metal, namely Cd, Pb, As, and Hg, were added at concentrations higher than the standard concentrations in drinking water. Further, the concentrations of these metals in the fruit-bodies (pilei) were assessed. The metal concentrations in the test water were adjusted as 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 times higher than the standard concentrations in drinking water. We observed that the concentrations of 3 metals, except Pb, in the pilei tended to be higher with increase in metal concentrations in the test water. Even when using test water with metal concentrations that were equal to the standard concentrations in drinking water, the metal concentrations in the pilei were higher than those in the test water. Thus, we considered the accumulation of metals from the sawdust and nutrition in the medium, in the fruit-bodies. The Cd concentrations in pilei at Cd test water concentrations of 8 and 16 times were, respectively, about 60 and 70 times higher than the standard concentrations in drinking water. This indicated that Cd concentrated in the fruit-bodies. Further, As concentrations of 1-8 times resulted in the pilei showing As concentrations higher than that in the test water and basis substrate, which suggested that As also concentrated in the fruit-bodies. Based on these results, the necessity of establishing the heavy metal and other metal standard in water added to the culture medium was discussed for confirming food hygiene of Shiitake mushroom.

View full abstract

Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) forest plantations were damaged by snow that accreted on the tree crown in the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture, which is at 200 -400 m altitude, on January 9-10, 2009. This study investigated the status of the damaged forests and the sizes of the damaged trees. The damage occurred in forests of suitable tree density, too. Despite having same tree density, resistance to damage is controlled by land form or management histories. The least damaged trees exceeded breast height diameter of 32 cm and had a height-diameter ratio of less than 65. It is, therefore, necessary to grow planted trees to the above sizes as soon as possible to minimize the risk of snow damage. Trunks were observed to break either at the tree crown or at the top of the trunk. Because the damages in these parts of the tree do not have a serious effect on growth, the growth increments of trees were expected to be reduced only minimally. However, trees where the trunk split in the middle, with an average split length of 3.5 m, were likely to die and could not be used as construction material. In conclusion, the trees sustain damages that are more serious by trunk splitting than by breaking.

View full abstract