Prompted by Mountain Day, I gave some thought to the future of bears and forests.

Hello!

This is Ann from LOVST TOKYO PR.

August 11th is "Mountain Day." It's a public holiday established as "a day to get familiar with mountains and appreciate their blessings."

We usually don't feel a strong connection to mountains, but they are actually closely intertwined with our lives. Thanks to abundant mountains, clean water, air, and ecosystems are preserved.

Against this backdrop, LOVST TOKYO has been conducting a donation campaign since last year, coinciding with Mountain Day, to support the "Japan Bear & Forest Society," which is dedicated to protecting wildlife and rich forests.

In this Staff Blog, I'd like to revisit the reasons why LOVST TOKYO decided to implement this donation campaign and discuss the issues facing Japan's forests!

 

It started with a single comment during an internal meeting.

Theきっかけは、社内会議でのひとこと
The reason LOVST TOKYO decided to launch a donation campaign for the "Japan Bear & Forest Society" was a casual remark made by a staff member during a regular meeting to decide the company's policy.

"Lately, there have been so many news reports about bears coming into human settlements and urban areas, and it breaks my heart... They must really want to live peacefully in the mountains, so why is this happening?"

This small internal conversation started with that comment. As it turned out, it wasn't just that staff member; other team members felt the same way.

From there, the idea developed: "Perhaps our users feel the same way?" "So, what can LOVST do?" And so, it was decided to implement a donation campaign.

 

 

Bears appearing in cities. Is it the bears' fault?

 

In recent years, we have frequently seen news about "bears appearing in human living areas."

At first glance, it's easy to think, "Bears in urban areas are dangerous!" or "How scary!" However, behind this issue lies a serious problem: changes in mountain and forest environments due to human activities.

The Japan Bear & Forest Society states:

Wild animals that have lost their rich forest habitats and cannot survive in artificial forests are coming down to human settlements in search of food, causing damage to agricultural crops. Local residents are in distress, and many wild animals are being culled.

This is the current situation.
(Source: Japan Bear & Forest Society https://kumamori.org/forest_crisis.html)

Bears, lacking food in the forest, approach human settlements "to survive" and are subsequently captured and killed.

If there is no other way to survive than to go into urban areas, no matter the risk, the bears have no choice but to descend the mountains to search for food. That is the situation they are in.

 

Declining natural forests and deteriorating Satoyama

Of particular concern is the decline of natural forests, which are the bears' original habitat, and the degradation of satoyama (traditional managed woodlands).

Due to post-war forest policies, many natural forests were replaced by artificial forests, leading to a significant loss of biodiversity. Artificial forests are designed with the premise that humans will continuously manage them, so if management becomes insufficient, they become "dead forests."

According to the Ministry of the Environment, forests with high naturalness (natural forests and secondary forests) are generally decreasing nationwide, and the quality of biodiversity is deteriorating.

(Source: Ministry of the Environment "Biodiversity Center" vegetation survey https://www.biodic.go.jp/kiso/vg/vg_kiso.html)

Furthermore, due to depopulation and the decline of the forestry industry, satoyama, which once functioned as a "connection" between humans and nature, are now left to ruin.

These factors combined have made the Japanese forests a harsh environment for wild animals, including bears, to survive.

 

 

What we can do

Upon learning these facts, LOVST TOKYO considered, "So, what can we do now?"

There were opinions like, "Even if you're interested in bear conservation, you don't know where to start," and "Even if you empathize with the problem, it's hard to take action in daily life." So, we decided to implement a donation campaign that anyone can easily participate in.

The "Japan Bear & Forest Society," chosen as the recipient of the donation campaign, performs a wide range of activities, including:

• Activities to protect forests, connecting rich forests where bears live to future generations

• Activities to regenerate deep mountain areas where large wild animals can live, by thinning abandoned artificial forests, etc.
• Wildlife protection activities that aim for coexistence rather than culling

We are deeply empathetic to the organization's philosophy and sincerely wish to support its activities! With this in mind, we have once again designated the "Japan Bear & Forest Society" as the recipient of our donation this year, continuing from last year.

 

 

We hope shopping at LOVST TOKYO can be a small catalyst.

In this donation campaign, to encourage more people to purchase LOVST TOKYO items, we are offering all items at an 8% discount, and 5% of the sales will be allocated to donations.

Among LOVST TOKYO's customers, there are those who live in areas where bears have actually appeared, and others who don't feel a strong connection to the issue.

However, we hope that through shopping at LOVST TOKYO, everyone will see this problem facing Japan's forests as a shared challenge and that it will serve as an opportunity to raise awareness.

May this year's "Mountain Day" be an opportunity to reflect on mountains and forests, and to consider the coexistence of bears, nature, and humans.

 

Save the Forest Campaign Details here