Nippon Paper Industries Co.,Ltd. Concluded an Agreement with the Akan Ainu Association on Ainu Culture Preservation and Promotion Activities in its Akan Company-Owned Forest
Nippon Paper Industries Co.,Ltd.
Nippon Paper Industries Co.,Ltd. (President &President and Representative Director: Akira Sebe,head office : Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter referred to as“Nippon Paper Industries”) signed an agreement with the Akan Ainu Association (Chairman: Kunio Toko) for“Agreement on Ainu Culture Preservation and Promotion Activities in Nippon Paper Industries' Akan Company-Owned Forest”(hereinafter referred to as“This agreement”), and held an agreement signing ceremony today at the Lake Akan Ainu Theater Iko in Akan-cho, Kushiro City, Hokkaido.
(Signing ceremony: Left: General Manager Tachikawa, Nippon Paper Industries Green Strategy Promotion Department, Right: Chairman of the Akan Ainu Association)
This agreement aims to respect the traditions and culture of the Ainu people, pass them on and promote their understanding of society, and is intended for Nippon Paper Industries and the Akan Ainu Association to collaborate on activities in the Akan Company-owned Forestsowned by Nippon Paper Industries in the area around Lake Akan in Kushiro City. The term of this agreement is scheduled to last for up to five years (the end of March 2031), and in fiscal 2026, the first year, the Ainu people, led by the Akan Ainu Association, and the Group employees are plan to conduct field surveys and traditional collection activities in the Akan Company-owned Forests.
Nippon Paper Industries own approximately 90,000 hectares of company-owned forests in Japan, of which about 20% are environmental forest areas that do not produce timber and preserve environmental functions such as ecosystems and water source retention, and the rest are managed commercial forest areas that produce timber. The Akan (*Akan 2)company-owned forests, which is the venue for the activities of this agreement, has a total area of approximately 3,000 ha (more than twice the area of Lake Akan of approximately 1,300 ha), and the entire area is located in the Akan Mashu National Park, and is divided into areas to be conserved as environmental forest areas and areas for forestry industry activities as commercial forest areas to carry out sustainable forest management.
(Akan 2 company-owned forests: Located around Lake Akan and located in Akan Mashu National Park)
NIPPON PAPER GROUP is promoting initiatives to improve the value of its forests under the“Green Strategy”growth strategy based on maximizing the value of forests and forest resources, and this agreement is one of the Group Green Strategy. We will continue to expand our activities for coexistence with local communities and biodiversity conservation in our forests, and contribute to solving social problems as“a comprehensive biomass company shaping the future with trees”.
*)Nippon Paper Industries company-owned forests in Akan, Akan 1, 2, and 3, and the target of this agreement is only Akan 2.