Restore 100 Hectares of the Miyagi Coastal Forest

We are very grateful for your continued support to our Coastal Forest Restoration Project in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture in Tohoku Region.

The project started in March 2011, and from 2014 through 2020, we were able to plant a total of 370,000 black-pine seedlings along the coastline of Natori City. The project is now on its second-phase, focusing on post-planting management, which is crucial for the growth and survival of the black-pines. The sub-contracted forest workers and mobilized volunteers from all over Japan are working hard to maintain the site including, grass cutting, controlling of kuzu and Fuji vines, digging drainage, and other reforestation related management.

Due to corona, we had to limit the number of participating volunteers to those who are living in the Tohoku Region. Now that the corona situation is getting much better, we received volunteer requests from different companies and organizations.

As part of our effort to maintain our project site, last January, we thinned out/removed black-pines to allow the remaining trees to have horizontal and deep rooting, as well as to grow taller and develop sturdy tree trunks. These factors help guarantee having a strong and resilient coastal forest that will protect local communities and their source living from future disasters. Following the advice of forest experts, over the next 30 years, we will continue reducing the number of trees, from the initial number of 5,000 trees per hectare into about 800-1,000 trees per hectare.

Meanwhile, we are working on to minimize the damage caused by pine weevils (enemies of pine trees), by seeking the help of local communities. We give value for their active participation in terms of monitoring/keeping an eye on any unusual changes in our project site that might be caused by pine weevils. With an objective to involve as many locals as possible, as well as instill a sense ownership towards the project, we are collaborating with the city government of Natori to revitalize their coastal area.

In March, a disaster prevention park developed by Natori City was completed at a location adjacent to the planting site. Within the park, a "Kitagama Area Memorial Zone" was established to preserve the life history of the people of the Kitagama area, which has a 400-year history of life protected by coastal forests. In addition to panels introducing life in the Kitagama area, panels describing the history, role, and restoration of the coastal forest were also installed in the zone. As the park is located close to Sendai Airport and is visited by many parents and children, we hope that the importance of coastal disaster prevention forests will be conveyed to the next generation.

With your generous support, we will continue to make efforts to guarantee that the coastal forest will function as a natural barrier that will help protect people`s lives.

We are thankful to all our GlobalGiving donors for supporting our project. It is now on its second phase wherein activities mostly focus on site maintenance- improvement of site water drainage, weeding (kuzu, nise acacia and fuji tsuru), and thinning. The thinning process is crucial for the growth of broad, tall, and sturdy tree trunks, promotes the horizontal and deep rooting of black-pines, and to prevent the withering of the lower branches of black-pines. These factors guarantee the creation of a strong and resilient forest (different from the pre-tsunami coastal forest) that will protect local communities from disasters.

 According to the experts, pre-tsunami coastal forests were congested with almost 10,000 standing black-pines per hectare. Without any thinning, the trees were weak with no sturdy trunks, and since they were planted closely, the trees were not able to expand their roots both horizontally and vertically. Moreover, as a result of not doing any thinning, lower branches of pre-tsunami black-pines have withered.

 We are the pioneer organization to do thinning the coastal forests of Japan. We officially started the thinning process early January through March this year. We will be removing 1,650 trees or 33% of the 5,000 standing trees per hectare. As we are targeting to do it in an area of 10 hectares, a total of 16,500 black-pines will be cut. We will do the same process for 7 straight years. We will be needing the amount of 170,000 USD per year (just for thinning and the sustainable disposal of the thinned trees). The central and prefectural government of Japan committed to shoulder the 50% cost for this year and next year.

 Meanwhile, due to corona, there was a decline in the number of volunteers from outside Miyagi Prefecture. We received several requests expressing their intention to help, but we have no choice but to decline to comply with the government`s safety protocols. In spite of this, the increase in the number of local volunteers compensated the absence of outside volunteers. Equipped with strong volunteer spirit and deep understanding of how meaningful their contributions are, local volunteers are willing to volunteer for an average of 8 hours to help us maintain our project site. While other organizations are struggling from engaging volunteers (both local and outside volunteers), our group of volunteers keeps on getting bigger and it is heartwarming because they keep on returning. We were able to mobilize 237 volunteers this year, which is almost 8 times lower than the 1,800 average of volunteers that we have before corona. Under much safer condition, we are looking forward to working with the volunteers from the different parts of Japan or from abroad.