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Report
No.240702 |
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- Domestic - |
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Prime Minister Instructs Concerted Government Efforts for Forest Management The government will launch the forest management and maintenance in a concerted effort of all the responsible ministries and agencies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka to promote 'management of beautiful forests' during an informal cabinet ministers' meeting on February 9. The aim is to accelerate forest management with a view to preventing global warming as forests absorb CO2. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka will study how the responsible ministries and agencies should collaborate for this purpose, one of which could be setting up of a cabinet meeting of related ministers. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka proposed at the said informal meeting of cabinet ministers, saying "it is necessary to promote this in a major campaign involving wide range of people." Prime Minister Abe responded to say "The government should make concerted efforts to promote it together with people." The government has secured a total of
It intends to make a major push on thinning and use of lumber generated by thinning. It will also launch a forest management project meant for stable supply of irrigation water for agriculture. The CO2 absorption target, necessary to achieve the goal of Kyoto-Protocol, will be pursued "with budget of the scale not seen in normal years" (the Forest Agency Private Forest Department.) The government intends to make such undertakings a concerted effort of all the related ministries, taking account of such forest policies as the promoting of the use of thinning lumber, the securing of forest workers, the supporting of private sector forest management activities, the mountainous area development and so forth which involved many fields where inter-agency collaboration is possible. The government will set up a cabinet meeting of related ministers representing 8 office and ministries on February 23, which will discuss a grand policy for undertaking 'the management of beautiful forests.' The cabinet meeting of related ministers will be held with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki as its chairperson. Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Minister of Environment, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare will attend it. Based on a grand policy to be laid out by the cabinet meeting of related ministers, the campaign will be promoted at an executive level by an inter-ministries liaison committee composed of the heads of bureaus. A nation-wide promotion conference will also be set up involving business community, non-profit organizations and local autonomies to make the campaign a joint government-private sector effort. |
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76.5 billion, made up of a supplementary appropriation to the FY2006 budget and FY2007 appropriation, to implement 'management of beautiful forest.' The plan is to consolidate 580,000 hectares of forest. |
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