Government Conducts Poll on Expectations about Forest Functions

The Japanese government's Cabinet Office has released the results of a "Poll on Forests and Life," conducted in December 2003. The survey asked 26 questions about people's expectations and feelings about forests, for example whether they felt affection for forests, and what their expectations were regarding the use of forests and wood, the various roles that forests play, and about government measures to address the global environment and forest conservation, how they think forests should be administered, and so on. A total of 3,000 adults nationwide were chosen at random for the survey, and 70.4 percent of them responded.

Results of the poll show that the functions people expect forests to perform were as follows (multiple answers possible up to three): prevention of landslides or floods (49.9 percent), prevention of global warming (42.3 percent), and storage of water resources (41.6 percent).

On future forest maintenance, 74.4 percent of the respondents replied that "forest maintenance should focus on public benefits, including land conservation and disaster prevention, regardless of economic efficiency." Almost 90 percent of these respondents said that the cost of forest maintenance should be covered by taxes.

As for forest maintenance as a future preventive measure against global warming, over 80 percent of the respondents thought that proactive forest maintenance is essential. Over 70 percent of the respondents also thought that they should share the cost of forest maintenance in some way; either through taxes shared equally by all citizens, through taxes proportional to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, or through voluntary contributions such as to a green fund.

The results of this survey show increasing expectations regarding the various functions of forests and increasing concern about global warming and forest deterioration in accordance with a growing awareness of environmental problems.




Posted: 2004/05/31 08:28:35 AM
Japanese version