In 2009, the Law of Natural Parks of Japan was amended to include the statement that “natural parks should aim at conserving biodiversity” as a purpose of the law. Natural parks are now expected to save and promote biodiversity. Therefore, the formation of an area plan for conserving biodiversity is essential for each natural park. The aim of this study was to create a “Vegetation Database (VDB)” using GIS that would contain information about conserving and restoring biodiversity in the Okudaisen district in Daisen-Oki National Park, south-western Honshu, Japan. The VDB consists of a digital vector map and its property information. Basically, boundary lines of polygons were drawn using a small “forest compartment” drawn onto a “forest plan map” and property information about each forest compartment was introduced from a “forest database” obtained from the Forestry Agency and the Tottori prefectural government. Forest compartments that had different land cover/actual vegetation types within the compartment were divided into smaller patches designated “vegetation patches” as the smallest unit of the VDB. The VDB has the following assets: 1) The VDB is drawn in a 1/5000 scale and contains detailed information about the land cover and plant community; therefore, it is useful for vegetation management; 2) The VDB has previous land cover information from 1958, 1974, 1996, and 2012, so it is useful for reviewing plant community succession and land cover changes. Previous changes can be used to estimate future succession; and 3) The VDB contains information about land ownership and national park planning. This information is useful for managing natural park areas.

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A method for forest zoning, which was based on evaluation of land-productivity and mountain hazard, was proposed for entire conifer-plantation area in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan. 1) Site indices on land-productivity were determined by Mitscherlich formula, and ordered logit model was developed to estimate the site indices from topographical and climatic factors. Then evaluation map of land-productivity was produced. The map was overlaid with the map evaluating work efficiency, and evaluation map on continuity of conifer plantation was produced. 2) Using point-records on slope collapse and environmental factors (topography, precipitation, and vegetation), probability of collapse was estimated for every slope from Maximum Entropy Model (Maxent). Evaluation map on mountain hazard was produced by adding information on distribution of houses, roads and railways, and croplands. Then evaluation map on the priority for altering conifer plantation to natural forest was produced by overlaying a map on the policy of natural forest expansion, which was established by Tokushima Pref. Government. Result of the Maxent indicated that increase of natural forest area could reduce the probability of slope collapse, and thus alteration of conifer plantation to natural forest will satisfy both functions at the same time. 3) Finally zoning map was produced from the viewpoints of the continuity of conifer plantation and the alteration priority from conifer plantation to natural forest. The zoning method is easily applicable in each local government in an adaptive way.

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In this study, we propose an approach to regional scale zoning developed on the basis of the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators for achieving sustainable forest management. Focusing on reconversion of planted forests to natural forests, a regional scale forest-zoning system was developed on the basis of the Montreal Process criteria and applied to a sample watershed (approximately 18,500 ha), consisting of 80 subwatersheds located in Kitaibaraki and Takahagi Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. In this system, a forest management objective was selected for each subwatershed on the basis of the following points: timber production, biodiversity conservation, or a combination of the two. Each subwatershed was evaluated on the basis of its suitability for timber production, determined by the potential site productivity and the probability of typhoon damage, and importance in maintaining gamma diversity, determined by the vegetation type based on the dominance of Fagus crenata. This study revealed that the system may be a useful tool for decision making on forest reallocation on a regional scale.

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We evaluated site characteristics in a forest landscape of a small catchment from the view point of timber production, soil conservation and biodiversity conservation in order to propose a scientific methodology for selecting candidate sites for restoration of natural forests. Based on the scores of three site characteristics analyzed with topography data, we selected candidate sites of restoration, then mapped their priority at sub-catchment level. This method, using AHP scoring, enabled to show the candidate sites at a fine scale, and to provide effective decision support information by providing alternatives according to the different weight of management objectives drawn with different threshold of scores. Further, it was suggested that mapping of priority at sub-catchment level, which corresponds to the compartment of forest planning, can put a consistency between the scientifically extracted candidates for restoration and the actual forest management/planning regime.

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We proposed a stepwise methodology to determine the restoration priority of natural forests in an warm-temperate riparian buffer strip based on two indicator species, Ulmus davidiana var. japonica and Quercus hondae. In the first step, we estimated the potential habitat for coexistence and/or single occurrence of the two species which have different habitat requirement, by using generalized linear modeling. In the second step, we extracted the candidate sites for restoration which have high potential habitat suitability and severely degraded populations of the two species at the current status. In the third step, we mapped the high priority sites as those having adjacent seed sources for Q. hondae which has a strong constraint of seed dispersal, and those improve the habitat connectivity for U. davidiana var. japonica which has a strong constraint in occurrence of suitable habitats. This stepwise methods combining the site evaluation of the two species of different characteristics was thought to be effective for comprehensive selection of the restoration sites taking into account the different restoration objectives and practical restoration methods in riparian buffer strips.

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Crop damage by wildlife is becoming a serious problem in Japan. We estimated the seasonal change of the habitat use, and the factor caused to crop damage for one troop of the crop-raiding Japanese macaques in Shibata City, Niigata Prefecture. The location data acquired by radio-tracking method from 2006 to 2008 were employed. Moreover, we applied ALOS/AVNIR-2 data for detecting the land-cover within macaque's habitat. At first, the seasonal change of habitat use by the Japanese macaques was evaluated using Manly's resource selection index. We also estimated the environmental factors which contributed to the occurrence of crop damage by generalized linear mixed model. As the results, habitat use by crop-raiding Japanese macaques was different by season. Japanese macaques preferred to the agricultural land during August to November. Japanese macaques were used the agricultural land as their foraging sites. Habitat use by Japanese macaques was related to the locations of the foraging sites. Especially, the dependence to the agricultural land becomes high level in the summer and winter which are the food scare seasons. The results of the generalized linear mixed model showed the difference among seasons in the environmental factors contributed to crop damage. The most important environmental factor which relate to crop damage was the minimum distance between the locations of crop damage and forest edge. As the other environmental variables which contributed to the prediction of crop damage, resources which are able to use in each season were selected (i.e., late spring: corn, other crops, and grass land, summer: corn and other crops, early winter: Kaki Persimmon). In conclusion, we propose to use the countermeasures properly in each season following the change of the environmental variables related to the occurrence of crop damage.

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The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is distributed widely in Japan, and agricultural damage has occurred frequently in their distribution area. Although the agricultural damage of the wild boar in Niigata Prefecture was only 80,000 yen in 2005, it amounted to 40 million yen in 2009. Environmental variables related to the agricultural damage by the wild boar have been reported: Altitude, the percentage of forests and fields within their habitat, reduction of forest use, increase of the abandoned cultivated land and so on. However, the previous researches did not target the area where the population of the wild boar has expanded such as Niigata Prefecture. In this research, we aimed to clarify the relationship between the agricultural damage by the wild boar and the factors concerning the landscape structure in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture. We used "the wildlife damage report data concerning paddy rice mutual aid appraisal of damage" as the locations of the agricultural damage, and the GIS data which was digitized the geographic data by the field survey. As the non-agricultural damaged area, we applied pseudo absence points which are same number of damaged locations. Logistic analysis which represents the relationship between the wild boar damage and the environmental variables such as forest edge, the distance from river and so on was employed. As the results, about the distance from forest edge, stream, and the abandoned cultivated land, we obtained the positive effect for the probability of damage. On the other hands, the negative effects were obtained from the distance to river, roads, and urban areas. We suggest that the wild boar damage was occurred around the forest edge and the abandoned cultivated land from our predictions. The management of forest edge and the abandoned cultivated land within the habitat of the wild boar is necessary for damage control.

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In these days, expectation for companies to conserve biodiversity is growing. However, their activities as corporate social responsibility (CSR) for biodiversity conservation are just beginning, and researches about this issue are few. Therefore, we conducted a research to find clues to effectively facilitate companies' activities for biodiversity conservation. We selected 180 global large companies from nine types of business, and analyzed activities for biodiversity conservation in CSR reports. As a result, we found the tendency that activity types vary from industry to industry due to the different business conditions and situations such as business style, related law, and owned land. For example, wholesalers tend to prefer dealing with certificated products. Financial enterprises are prone to bankrolling the companies caring biodiversity. Industries holding large lands for factories are apt to improve the land uses for biodiversity. In addition, we also found that three factors are important: “Clarity in standards and indicators”, “Easiness to act in relation to business” and “Enforcement”.

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In this study, we aimed to investigate the habitat of grassland plants which flower in the spring, compared to the difference of the long-term mowing management of semi-natural grasslands in the Shimousa plateau in the Chiba Prefecture of Japan. In grassland plants which flower in the spring, Ranunculus japonicus and Lathyrus quinquenervius were found in the section mowed 1 time per year according to the May survey. However, the appearance frequency and presence of Potentilla freyniana, Potentilla fragarioides，and Polygonatum odoratum were high in the sections mowed 3～4 times per year. We considered that in Ranunculus japonicus and Lathyrus quinquenervius, their germination and growth are suppressed gradually, their roots decline, and plants will not grow soon. Potentilla freyniana, Potentilla fragarioides，and Polygonatum odoratum have grown under good sunshine with low-medium herbaceous conditions, and have adapted repeating seed dispersal and vegetative propagation in the environment of mowing 3～4 times per year for more than 20 years. Many Luzula capitata and Ixeris dentate were found in the environment that conducted excessive mowing of 10 times or more per year for more than 10 years. These species have developed repeating seed dispersal and vegetative propagation under the environment of intense mowing pressure for a long time, not being suppressed. On the other hand, Pteridium aquilinum, Potentilla fragarioides, Potentilla freyniana, Chaenomeles japonica, and Imperata cylindrica have grown, adapting to the cover of tall herbs.
We considered that the appearance of grassland plants which flower in the spring has been affected by the differences of continuous mowing frequency for a long time and the presence or absence of the inhibition of high-stem herbaceous plants by mowing frequency after blooming and fruitage.

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