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Beech Extinct in 100 Years from
Japan ?
Forest of Buna[beech, Siebold's beech Fagus crenata
Bl.] is going almost to go away from Japan in 100 years --- . Such a shocking forecast was revealed on June 10 in a report drafted by an expert committee of the Central Environment Council of the Ministry of Environment. This is presumably because the average temperature of Japan will rise by some 4 degrees Centigrade by the end of the 21st century and it will facilitate change of tree varieties to chestnut trees and
Ko-nara[white oak Quercus serrata Thunb], the kinds more resistant to arid climate.
Buna forest spreads over mountainous areas of 500 to 1,000 meters above sea level where annual temperature averages around 8 degrees Centigrade. If, under the influence of global warming, the temperature rises by 4 degrees, such an environment will not be where Buna trees can withstand as they are fit to grow in cool and wet conditions. The Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), which has undertaken the research, predicts that the country's Buna forest will shrink in area from 2.3 million hectares at present to only 230 thousand hectares in 100 years' time.
"They will be almost extinct in western Japan. Wide areas of the regions of
Toh-hoku[north-east] and Hokkaido[the northern most major island] will become unfitted except at high mountains," says a researcher at the Institute. Buna forest is home to 300 different varieties of trees and grasses as well as a fairly large population of Japanese black bears and Japanese deers. "The rise in temperature will greatly influence habitation of those animals and plants," the Institute warns.
The Central Environment Council points out that "To preserve habitat of Buna, we can only reduce global warming gas such as
carbon-dioxide emitted world-wide."
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