Japan’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries ministry has formulated a plan for increasing the amount of wood products manufactured in the country.
The initiative aims to use timber from forest thinnings which would normally be thrown away.
The ministry will kickstart the plan by replacing its own steel office furniture with wood products. Metal fences and guardrails along hiking trails and other properties under the ministry’s jurisdiction will also be replaced with timber by March 31, 2005.
It will promote timber for the construction of public facilities which it funds and aims to double the levels of wood in soil conservation projects by the end of fiscal 2004. Overall, the ministry used 290,000m3 of wood in the 2002 financial year, which it hopes will rise to 400,000m3 under the plan.
