Regenerating 100-Hectare Forest in Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji is registered as a World Heritage Site as a mountain of faith. It has been crowded with many climbers since ancient times, and many climbers still visit the inner shrine of Mt. Fuji Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine at the top. By the way, the land at the top of Mt. Fuji is owned and managed by this shrine.

Climbing Mt. Fuji in general is limited to the summer period, and is held during the three months from the opening of the mountain in early July. The number of climbers this year was about 160,000, which is almost double of last year's. As the number of people infected with corona has increased, it seems that the number of climbers has increased. However, since travel from overseas was still restricted, I think there were few climbers from overseas.

We reported last time that volunteer activities have resumed this year. We have organized them quite a number of times, and the last activity for this year was held at the end of October. This year, it snowed in October at our project site, and we were worried about whether we would be able to carry out the activity, but after that, the weather improved and the snow disappeared. We were able to carry out the last activity safely.

In the forest that was beginning to change color, the volunteers were working comfortably. One of the volunteers who helped planted the trees and have been part of the project since its early stages, have commented how he felt the trees are growing bigger.

As the site`s temperature getting lower from now on, the growing trees will soon face a harsh winter. However, following their growth cycle, they might endure a harsh winter, but they will produce new young leaves in spring. It may be difficult for us to access our project area until May next year because of snow, we will still be working on the promotion of project to gain further support.

Our project site covers a total area of 100 hectares, where we grow more than 20,000 trees. This year, we had more than 300 volunteers who helped us reinstall individual nets on about 1,200 trees to protect from deer. The mobilized volunteers, who are mostly our partner companies and organizations, enabled us to maintain our project site.

We are also grateful for the entrusted donations from our GlobalGiving supporters. We were able to subcontract more local foresters who helped us in saving many trees.

There are still many trees that need our care. We ask for your continued support so that a rich forest will be formed in this area 100 years from now.