Profile of Dr. Akio Shimomura:
Professor of Forest Science, The University of Tokyo. After experience with a private research institute, Dr. Shimomura returned to university in 1986 to teach and research the field of landscape gardening (architecture), tourism and recreation planning, and ecotourism from the perspective of rural development.

Forest Preservation and Ecotourism: Test Case for School Trips
Ecotourism is still in its infancy, and its definition is still very broad. However, it s generally agreed that the purpose of ecotourism may be categorized into three points: "local natural resources" "tourists," and the "local population." First of all, ecotourism must have minimum impact on "local natural resources," and must contribute to the sustainable maintenance of the natural environment. Secondly, it must provide an enjoyable and enriching experience for the "tourists," offering them a program that would deepen their awareness and understanding of the natural world. Thirdly, it must provide a sense of pride as well as economic benefit to the "local population." It is important that these three points form a continuous cycle with nature as the focus.

Two-thirds of land in Japan consists of forests, but according to research by the Ministry of Environment, a only a quarter of it is old growth forests. If you include farmlands and meadows, 70% of land is nature which have been influenced to some Japanese people have always lived closely surrounded by such man-modified natural areas and have appreciated the seasonal changes in the scenery. For a long time, these areas had been maintained by people engaged in primary industry. However in postwar Japan, change of lifestyles and the decline of primary industry have made it difficult to continue the maintenance of these regions, and the unique natural scenery of different regions has been lost.

In recent times, people have become more interested in wilderness, but I would like to emphasize that in Japan, most of our nature is altered to some degree by man, and we have a long history of living in such a natural environment. Today, it is crucially important to build a new system for the maintenance of these areas.

Next, I would like to introduce a project I am working on called the "Young People's Project for Building Future Forests." This project organized by the Japan Ecotourism Society (JES) incorporates ecotourism in school education. In this program, the young leaders of tomorrow learn about forest building on their school trips, and deepen their understanding of the significance and the mechanism of environmental conservation and how to coexist with nature. Children stay at homes in hosting communities and get to experience their lifestyle, forestry work and farming, and enjoy the natural settings of mountains, fields and rivers. The program, which is produced by JES, is implemented by guides, travel agencies and local communities.

The educational aim of this project is to allow children to understand the connection between our daily liviing and nature. In our modern lifestyle, we are not aware of where the foods we eat or the materials of furniture we use are actually produced. Through this program, participants learn how the mountains and fields and other natural areas are originally interconnected with our lives and how we have lost touch with them.

Also, children learn the difference between preservation of man-modified nature such as satoyma (village mountains) and protection of wilderness areas. They are taught that preservation of man-modified nature requires time and money, as well as the active commitment of each individual. Creating a program that reflect these educational aims, gives uniqueness to ecotour school trips that cannot be found in other experiential tours.

Currently, Higashishirakawa-mura in Gifu prefecture and Nishikawa-machi in Yamagata prefecture are participating in this project and being used as model areas. However there are still various challenges to be overcome, such as the local communities' limited capacity to accommodate the number of participants which travel agencies wish to send in. Therefore, it will take some more time before we can realize a model tour. Nevertheless, we would like to continue developing this project, with a view to creating new schemes for community management that would allow harmonious coexistence of man and nature.