The concept of Natural Restoration is based upon the premise of a degraded area. The structure of the restoration process is seen as the reverse of the process of destruction, thus being possible to focus on the subject, purpose and interrelationships of destruction. The development of natural restoration can not be depicted from the process of natural destruction, becoming more diversified and complex as the destruction process takes place. The structure of the restoration process in a diversified natural area is both the opposite of the process of destruction and the actual mechanism through which the human being, as the main actor, deals with the natural environment. This paper reviews nature restoration through two viewpoints: the features of natural destruction and restoration, and the use and operation and maintenance of restored areas.

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In many urban areas companies hold large amounts of green spaces. The Japanese government is beginning to expect those companies to act proactively in the conservation of those properties as local natural resources. But it was not examined in the general theory of partnership if companies would be the ones eligible to carry out the process of conservation. This paper analyzes approaches that improve corporate awareness towards local contribution for the community, and based on a case study of an industrial plant, it examines corporate motivation as a background. It was also contemplated the conditions that make it possible for enterprises to act proactively in natural resources conservation triggering its role as a public instrument.

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The influence of water disturbance and water level was investigated by using test pots in which external influences are minimized, in order to establish a conservation method for abandoned rice fields with scarce species. As a result, disturbance changes the types of encountered species, so that when water is disturbed, species found in the first year can not be observed in the second one. The type of species also changes according to water level. When water is not filled up, the number of species occurring becomes greater as well as the proportion of perennial herbaceous plants. Thus, by pre-establishing conditions of water disturbance and water level, it is suggested the possibility of controlling the vegetation. It was shown that in order to maintain perennial herbaceous plants such as rice field weeds and other small-sized weeds, continuous disturbance and water level of about five centimeters is effective.

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The forest certification of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has been attracting the attention of the world because it is a system that encourages proper utilization and conservation of forests. HayamiForestry, the case study presented in this report, was granted certification of FSC on February in 2000 for the first time in Japan, and awarded the ASAHI SHIMBUN special prize for environmentally sustainable forestmanagement on January, 2001. From the viewpoint of the forest certification system of FSC, the author analyzed Hayami Forestry forest management which managerial creed is "Beautiful Reforestation", and showed that Hayami Forestry is region- oriented and resources -based, and that the company is putting sustainable management into practice.

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Natural reforestation historically consisted of planning and execution by specialists in the fields such as civil engineering, landscape architecture and hydraulics. The maintenance of such facilities was also their responsibility. The biotope presented in this paper, differently from the above-mentioned ones, was planned and executed by specialists in hotaru (lightning bud) and other living organisms, so that it seeks to give life its very best living place. This biotope is used by people who want to experience staying inside a natural environment, and as a place to learn about the environment, being provided them the opportunity to think and make modifications by themselves, establishing a proactive participation-oriented model.

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[in Japanese]

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Sustainable rooftop vegetation system, only using rainfall as a water source, was developed by combining a dual structure plant bed installation, which incorporates a water retention layer and a light weight artificial soil layer, with plants being trained in a dry conditions before introduced. In this paper, we introduce the application example to create a habitat/biotope on top of a building and study related soil temperature. The results show that the temperature fluctuates in a 10 cm thick plant bed layer, which is beneficial for flower setting of grasses, whereas the temperature a 20 cm thick layer remains stable due to its water retention capacity, which is beneficial for the growth of larger plants. The non-watering greening system, when combined with a small artificial pond installation, open a way to create a new ecosystem, a self sustained plant community with rich activities of living organisms, and rejuvenate city environment. Further investigation is needed to establish the stability of ecosystem to be created in a hard environment.

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From the viewpoint of biodiversity, it is important to maintain plant communities on riversides and lakesides. In Japan, most of the living green on bank ecotones has been replaced by concrete. This paper summarizes an experimental study on an ecological bank using a green chain-bar-rivet method.

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Recently, there are a lot of biotope creation such as the school biotope. The biotope garden is the one that man was mainly regarded, and the creation type biotope in the classification of biotope. The situation after biotope is made is not so understood though biotope where the evaluation is high has increased recently. In this paper, the authors examined the maintenance of the biotope garden. In the maintenance, the followings are important; 1) Cooperative relationship with the citizens to maintain and to create peculiar ecosystem to region, 2) Enlightenment of the citizen consideration, 3) Some disturbance by nature or man, and 4) Foundation of fund as economic action for maintenance. Moreover, the biotope garden in two places of Shizuoka Prefecture was shown as an example.

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