Despite similarly steep terrain, the productivity of forest harvesting operations in Japan is lower than in Central Europe. Harvesting systems in Japan are typically characterized by the four production processes of felling, yarding, processing, and forwarding, whereas in Central Europe they have mostly been reduced to just two through the use of a PTY (Processor Tower Yarder). This study investigated the number of production processes as a reason for the relatively lower productivity of forest harvesting in Japan using the Combined Machine Productivity (CMP) and Combined Labor Productivity (CLP) indices. The CMP and CLP were 1.81 m³/h and 0.45 m³/worker/h, respectively, for a parallel production model based on a typical Japanese forest harvesting system in Japan. The CMP and CLP values were improved to 2.51 m³/h and 0.63 m³/worker/h, respectively, when the forwarding process was removed from the model. The CMP and CLP values were further improved to 3.04 m³/h and 0.76 m³/worker/h, respectively, when yarding and processing were integrated into a single process. Reducing the number of the production processes can therefore improve the productivity of forest harvesting operations in Japan.

Although an agro-based country, the farmers of Bangladesh do not receive significant returns from their products, due to some obstacles blocking the achievement of this ultimate goal. This study tries to identify the major challenges of the agroforestry product supply chains in Bangladesh, and offer an alternative solution through the involvement and experiences of farmer cooperatives within a Japanese cooperative model. The objectives were outfitted by two case studies, and the Bangladesh case clearly showed that the involvement of many intermediaries in agroforestry product supply chains was one of the main obstacles that stunted the outcomes of the agroforestry programs. The intermediaries have maximized their profit by buying the farmer products at low prices and selling them back at higher prices, which resulted in high marketing margins. Meanwhile, the Japanese case study had articulated that the farmer-driven cooperative approach, with its good marketing strategies and service functions, could successfully eliminate the intermediaries’ involvement in farmer products, and make a cooperative a strong economic organization. Despite a few challenges, the farmer-driven Japanese cooperative approach would be a good solution that could tackle the middleman problem, and make agroforestry a sustainable production system in Bangladesh.

In 2010, Vietnam implemented the payment for forest environmental services (PFES) program that was expected to bring additional income to local people and improve the efficiency of forest protection. However, factors affecting the motivation to participate in PFES have rarely been examined. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify factors that influence local people’s participation in PFES, (2) examine how local people participating in the PFES program were involved in decision-making in the Thua Thien Hue Province, and (3) assess PFES impact on local people. We conducted a field survey of 32 households at the study site. We found no difference in the access to PFES between poor and non-poor households. Participation in PFES was considered a reward for labor work in forests and a means to compensate for the legal rights of participants. Local people could participate at many stages of PFES implementation; however, they were only passive spectators with regards to PFES management. Two-thirds of the participants did not participate in decision-making regarding PFES distribution. We conclude that the efficiency of future PFES programs may be increased by enabling and stimulating the participants to take a more active part in the process of PFES management and distribution.

This study aimed to clarify the vegetation history of planted forests that are still in use today by comparing the types of land afforested in 1960 with the post-war afforestation period in Japan’s Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Kinki regions. It was during that time that the majority of the planted forest in these regions was established. We calculated the afforestation ratios (afforested area of each type of land/total afforested area) for the smallest survey unit, the 1950 administrative sections, using data from the 1960 World Agriculture and Forestry Census on the afforested areas of various types of land (i.e., deforested areas resulting from natural forests, deforested areas resulting from planted forests, and areas other than forests). The afforestation ratios were then sorted into ten categories for each municipality in the three regions and mapped using GIS. The analysis results showed that the vegetation history in Kyushu, even within the same municipality, was frequently mixed in 1960; in Hokkaido, the afforestation ratio for deforested areas resulting from natural forests was extremely high, while the afforestation ratio for deforested areas resulting from planted forests was low. In contrast, the Kinki region has a low afforestation ratio for non-forest regions. This study provides useful information for ecosystem management.

Most forest harvesting operations are performed using two or more forestry machines in combination; in the typical forest production system in steep terrain in Japan, there are four production processes: felling, yarding, processing, and forwarding. It is essential to evaluate the overall productivity of such combined production systems, but the calculation method that indicates the productivity has not been fully established. In this study, we built simulation models of serial, parallel, and sequential production systems by using system dynamics to evaluate their productivity regarding the combined machine productivity (CMP) and combined labor productivity (CLP) indices. Comparing the three types of forest harvesting systems in Japan, the parallel production system had the highest CMP, while the serial production system had the highest CLP; the sequential production system lay between the serial and parallel production systems in terms of CMP and CLP. The overall productivity of Japanese forest production systems was lower than that of Central Europe, where processor tower yarders (PTYs) are used. Thus, the CLP of Japanese forest production systems was improved by 12.8 to 26.5% by incorporating the concept of a PTY, and it can be further improved by eliminating the forwarding process.