Changing Common Forest and Village Communities in Suburban Areas

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of common forests in modern suburban villages. Although before the Second World War common forests played an important role in producing firewood and manure, today villagers do not rely on the common forest getting fuel and fertilizer, so most of the common forests have become valueless. But some remain valuable as a result of the reorganization of ownership and use. Especially, in suburban areas, forest land has become profitable in the process of urbanization.There are 26 common forests in Higashi-Hiroshima City which is located in the Hiroshima metropolitan area. Some of them have seen changes in their land use in order to get high level incomes, while others have not.The author made a comparison between high-income common forests and low-income ones, from two points of view:a) the process of land use changeb) the relationships with the village communityThe main results of this investigation are as follows:1. Ownership of common forests influences the changing land use. Once native residents are guaranteed their vested rights on the land, they promote construction of a residential area to get income.2. The two common forests which earn high-level income function as a source revenue for the community. Because of this the community becomes more active and the members equip themselves with facilities supported by the income of the forest.3. The managers of the large-income forest are leaders of the community. Today they are middle-class people. They obtain exclusive possession of the operations of common forest. They decide on the use of land and the use of money. They are backed by all the members, because their ability is considered valuable to manage common forest.4. Although the old-time neibourhood units of Japan“Oaza”do not function any more as such, they are revied in the case of some common forests.