About More Trees

General Incorporated Association More Trees is a forest conservation organization led by a Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto. With accelerating forest destruction and global warming reaching a critical point, five founders including Ryuichi Sakamoto stood up for action and established the organization in 2007, backed by more than 100 endorsers.  

It is not limited to forest conservation activities.
From forests to cities, we deliver products, services, information and experiences.
From cities to forests, we give back the thoughts of people, who receive the values of forest blessings, and economic price for such values.
“Connecting cities and forests” and maintaining the cycle is what we call “creating forests.”  

Efforts in Solving Forest Issues Abroad

Around the world, forest areas equivalent to 20 tennis courts disappear every 1 second. A particularly alarming issue is the decline of rainforests that support rich biodiversity. Main reasons for the disappearance of rainforests are forest clearing for timber and firewood as well as burning for farmlands as economic efficiency is prioritized. Especially, slash-and-burn land reclamation never ends even though it is illegal since the method requires a low cost. Such practices also cause fire progression leading to a mass forest fire.

In facing such reality, More Trees provides tree planting and maintenance as well as infrastructure such as firebreaks and reservoirs for forest fire prevention.

Efforts in Tacking Issues for Japanese Forest

Japan is a forest country, 70% of which is covered by forests. Since planting of Japanese cedars and Japanese cypresses was promoted by the government after WWII, the forest area of Japan (a large part of which consists of the planted forests) increased in the past 100 years. However, the cycle of growing, caring, and adequately cutting down trees and utilizing their materials has not been fully established as originally expected.

Also, due to the country’s declining self-sufficiency rate in timber, forestry has been weakened, cares are not provided, and more forests have been falling behind in performing their inherent functions.

More Trees aims for the recovery of diverse forest functions by achieving healthy forests through maintenance including thinning. We are also working on establishing the cycle to utilize domestic timber while maintaining healthy forests.

More Trees Forests 

More Trees has established “More Trees Forests” at 11 locations in Japan and 2 locations abroad to implement forest conservation activities in collaboration with each local community. The main actor in this process is the people living in the area. We make the best of their forestry technologies and knowledge to achieve forest conservation suitable to each location.