How young generations are oriented towards small-scale forestry in Japan?: Results of a questionnaire to the mailing list of the non-profitable organization for the promotion of self-logging forestry (ZIBATSU)

In Japan, small-scale forestry, known as 'self-logging (Zibatsu)', has attracted the attention of young people in recent years. In 2014 the Association for the Promotion of Self-logging type Forestry (Zibatsu-gata) was established as a non-profit organization (NPO). The NPO promotes small-scale forestry by providing training in chainsaw thinning and disaster-resistant spur roads, as well as management advice. However, it is unclear which demographic groups participate in the NPO's activities and what their expectations are of the small-scale forestry. Therefore, a questionnaire by google forms was conducted with 1,040 registered the direct mailing list of the NPOs to examine the attributes of the members and their expectations on Zibatsu forestry. The number of valid responses was 184 (17.7%). More than half of the respondents were under 50 years of age. Respondents could be divided into three categories: those who planned to engage in self-logging forestry (Candidates: 57%), those already working in self-logging forestry (Practitioners: 30%) and those who were supporters of the NPO activities (Supporters: 13%). The prospective workers were seeking to acquire skills in self-logging forestry and were particularly interested in learning spur roads for disaster resilient forestry. In particular, a high percentage of the candidates did not own forest land, indicating the importance of matching aging forest owners with candidates. It was also clear that few of the practitioners and candidates planned to make a living solely from income from Zibatsu, and many planned to combine it with other self-employment businesses.