Updated by "Forest Circular Economy" Editorial Board on October 06, 2025, 8:57 PM JST
Editorial Board, Forest Circular Economy
Forestcircularity-editor
We aim to realize "Vision 2050: Japan Shines, Forest Circular Economy" promoted by the Platinum Forest Industry Initiative. We will disseminate ideas and initiatives to promote biomass chemistry, realize woody and lumbery communities, and encourage innovation in the forestry industry in order to fully utilize forest resources to decarbonize the economy, strengthen economic security, and create local communities.
Animal damage caused by bears and deer is becoming more serious, casting a shadow over both forest ecosystems and local communities. As scientific disciplines become increasingly fragmented, the ability to integrate knowledge in the field and link it to solutions is being challenged. Conservation and Management of Forest Ecosystems“ crosses knowledge from forest landscape planning, wildlife management, forest ecology, and other fields. The book presents a road map for tackling increasingly complex forest issues by reconstructing the perspective of ”forest aesthetics" as "comprehensive forest literacy" through human perception of the landscape.
The issues surrounding forests are becoming increasingly complex. In the forestry industry, along with the arrival of the full-scale utilization of Japan's planted forests, there is a simultaneous need to address climate change, biodiversity conservation, and, in particular, the much publicized problem of damage caused by wild animals (animal damage).
Conventional forest science has accumulated in-depth knowledge on these issues in individual specialized fields, but as a result, specialized knowledge has become fragmented and fragmented, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to integrate this knowledge in the field and link it to effective measures.
This book has emerged to overcome this contemporary challenge of "fragmentation of specialized knowledge. It redefines "forest aesthetics," which has existed as a philosophy of forest management since ancient times, not as a mere landscape theory, but as "forest management literacy" to help people in the field deal with increasingly complex issues. This is a future-oriented attempt to present an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach to balance the contemporary policy demands of "sustainable provision of ecosystem services" and "revitalization of local economies.
This book depicts a new form of conservation that links forests, wildlife, and landscapes from the standpoint of "forest aesthetics," which reexamines forests on a human scale (from the perspective of people and their sense of life).
Part I, "Challenges and Coping with Japan's Plantation Forests," focuses on detailed analysis of the ecological impact of Japanese deer and bears, which threaten the health of modern forests, and how to implement practices that take this into account. By introducing specific techniques and practices, such as forest zoning, forest edge effects, future tree management, mixed forestry, and self-felling forestry, the report presents sustainable plantation forest management practices that are compatible with wildlife management.
Part II, "Ecosystem Services and Forest Space Utilization," focuses on the multifaceted value of forests. In addition to the creation and preservation of forest landscapes, it deals with themes such as the management of urban and suburban forests, potential natural vegetation as an adaptation to environmental change, and the preservation of giant trees, providing a perspective on how to utilize the value of forests as social capital and give back to local communities.
Part III, "Changes and Prospects of Forest Use in Modern and Contemporary Times," reexamines the historical transition and contemporary significance of forest aesthetics developed in Germany, and looks ahead to the future of forest management. The most significant feature of this section is that it positions wildlife management as one of the most important elements in the "regeneration of forest resources as natural capital" and emphasizes the need for management with the entire ecosystem in mind.
The editors of this book are composed of four individuals active at the forefront of education and research institutions such as Hokkaido University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. The book comprehensively integrates the disciplines of landscape architecture (landscape and planning), wildlife management, and forest ecology (trees and fungi), all of which are essential to contemporary forestry issues, and embodies the philosophy of "cross-disciplinary integrated literacy" that this book aims to achieve.
Forest Aesthetics" identifies the diverse values of forests through the human sensibility of landscape and links them to scientific and technological management practices. This provides the most important perspective in the search for "human-scale solutions" that go beyond mere dualism of use or protection and harmonize the environment and local economies.
This book offers hints for contemporary solutions to sustainable forest management. It will serve as a solid guide for designing the forests of the future for the business people who are responsible for the future of the forest industry, government officials who formulate policies, and researchers.
[Book information
Conservation and Management of Forest Ecosystems - Forests, Wildlife, and Landscapes.
Editors: Hirofumi Ueda, Koichi Kaji, Toshizumi Miyamoto, Takayoshi Koike
Publisher: Kyoritsu Shuppan
Publication date: September 29, 2025
View on publisher's website
