Report and Impression of Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) Kansai

Adella Anfidina Putri

515M113

This place located at 68 Nagaikyutaroh, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan. It is the brach
office of FFPRI Japan which responsible for a region extending from the Kinki and Chugoku districts
to part of the Hokuriku district. Research by the Kansai Research Center is aimed at shedding light
on the mechanisms behind the diverse functions of all forests, from satoyama (this is japanese
traditional landscape with social and ecological networks of a village and its surroundings, which
include agricultural lands, open forestlands and forests, and which have maintained a high diversity of
plants, insects and small-to-medium-sized animals (e.g., Tabata et al., 1997 in Fukamachi et al.,
2001)) to remote forests, including conservation of biodiversity, environmental conservation,
providing scenic beauty, and timber production.
In this research institute, they attempt to develop integrated forest management techniques
while looking for desirable relationships between nature and human society. For support the effective
and sustainable forest management, FFPRI Kansai forms some spesific research group, they are
Forest Ecology Group, Forest Environment Group, Forest Biodiversity Group, Forest Health Group
and Forest Management Group. First, Forest Ecology Group conducts research on forest structure
and dynamics and on the diversity and the ecological and genetic characteristics of constituent forest
species, this group also conducts research on tending and management techniques meant to grow
forests with diverse functions. Then Forest Environmental Group is trying to quantify forest's
functions (capture and storage of carbon preventing global warming, moderation of runoff and soil
erosion, and maintaining stream water quality) for contribute to the public demands. Third, Forest
Biodiversity Group is responsible to investigate the genetic- and species-level diversity of these
organisms and the relationships among organisms. This group also conducts research on how to
protect forests with well-maintained diversity and the organisms that live in them and on how to
recover lost diversity. Next one is Forest Heath Group, this group conducts research to investigate
conditions that encourage tree mortality and how to maintain healthy forests. The last is Forest
Management Group, this group carries out research on harvest forecasting through long-term
plantation monitoring and forestry-sector socioeconomic research based on diverse regional
characteristics. The group also conducts research which attempts to create a mechanism for
conserving and making use of satoyama and sub-urban forests based on the history of forest use.
The main purpose and mission of forest management in Japan can be conclude in one
program called Forest in Ther Year 2050: A Research and Development Roadmap to Foster and
Optimize Japanese Forests. FFPRI as the main lead in this program has a vision for the year 2050,
where forests will be sustainably managed and maintained through the recycling of resources, which
is made possible by proper fostering and utilization practices, so that the diverse blessings of forests
will be handed down to future generations. In this program and roadmap, four broad research and
development categories are defined, they are: conserving water and protecting national land,
coexisting with the environment, recycling forest resources and promoting the multi-functionality of
forest (FFPRI Japan, 2008).
In this tour, they also give us the iformation about their research in Forest Health Group. This
research told about the fungi which can causes damage of the forest. But unfortunately it is hard for
some international students to catch up all of this research because the lecturer was given in Japanese
so we can only understand some picture that showed.

Reference:
FPRI Japan. 2008. Forests in the Year 2050. (Available at http://www.ffpri.affrc.go.jp/)
Fukamachi K, Oku H, Nazashizuka T. 2001. The change of a satoyama landscape and its causality in
Kamiseya, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan between 1970 and 1995. Landscape Ecology 16: 703717,
2001.
Tabata H. (Editor) 1997. Satoyama and its conservation. Hoikusha: Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese).
http://www.ffpri.affrc.go.jp/fsm

really forget