Students Plays the Major Role in Bamboo Grove Management: Interview with Professor Fujinuma part 2

(translated by Maya Willyard)

Hello, everyone. This is Rina Machii from SDGs Promotion Office. In the first half of the interview with the professor, we focused on the current situation and locations of the areas affected by bamboo expansion. This is because of the lack of a proper management and maintenance system for the satoyama, nature purposefully made by humans. So, who takes care of the bamboo groves? Let’s ask Professor Fujinuma of the Environmental Studies department!

ICU’s Bamboo Forest Management System

Currently, Professor Fujinuma and Professor Kamito of the Environmental Studies lead the forest management on campus. Members of the nature observing circle called “Yanmori” help out by digging out bamboo shoots in spring. Students who take part in “Field Study in Environmental Study” help cut down excess bamboo. Those students’ activities, however, are done occasionally, not enough to catch up with the spread of bamboo. In fact, the invasion of bamboo has already gone out of control, destroying the original ecosystem in some areas. The situation is so dire that Professor Fujinuma believes if we cannot do more to contain bamboo spread by ourselves, we need to consider other options, including getting help from contractors and local people.

As an educational institution, ICU is not obligated to conserve the ecosystem. However, there are some areas that are too dangerous for students to walk through because of so much bamboo. ICU must act now to stop the further spreading of bamboo to continue serving students with educational opportunities that are made available by its unique setting in nature.

Students must take action on the bamboo grove management issue

So, why are so few people involved in bamboo management? One of the reasons is because we have no specific measures or a system that allows budgeting or managing. ICU believes that the forest on campus serves an educational purpose, meaning it is a place where students put their thoughts into action, so ICU encourages students to lead for change. In other words, students are given a chance to initiate action and achieve their goal if they notice something is not working on campus. Only by understanding the issue, students will realize what kind of environment they want and the steps that have to be taken to accomplish that goal.

Professor Fujinuma has sectioned the campus area into categories to serve different purposes in terms of nature management. For example, he has identified an area that he believes all bamboo there should be taken out to maintain Musashino’s unique vegetation, a section where the current natural habitat should remain untouched, and a section that serves as a place for students to explore nature. What kind of natural environment do you want on campus?

How do you get involved?

Because it is a place to learn, ICU wants students to take advantage of this opportunity to come up with solutions for forest management and put them into practice. On the other hand, you may say you are now aware of issues involved in bamboo management through lectures, but you don’t know where to start. We recommend that you participate in our environmental assessment workshop, in which you’ll learn methods to assess the condition of nature and manage bamboo forest as part of environmental conservation.

This field work also functions as a class to learn about risk management, which is often overlooked in projects led by students. Professor Fujinuma does not use a machete to cut bamboo with students around in his forest management project. Machetes are commonly used as a powerful tool to chop firewood in one swing, but for the same reason it can easily cause accidents such as cutting off a finger. In order to continue sustainable conservation, it is crucial to practice cautious safety management by having students wear gloves and a helmet and use a hand saw instead of a machete.

Additionally, there are various ways to tackle this bamboo forest issue other than “thinning” bamboo and cutting off bamboo shoots. Another effective management method is to create coal from removed bamboo. After three years of leaving it out for drying, we can burn the bamboo to carbonate into coal at the ICU campsite, which works as an excellent soil management material.

It would be interesting if we could reestablish the old bamboo management system of Musashino where bamboo was produced for the local and consumed by the local. Currently, ICU circles Slow Vill and Chisanchishou project (local production and local consumption project) are working with JA Tokyo Musashi Mitaka Area Youth Group and local farmers to make fertilizer from leaves collected from campus. Bamboo is a valuable resource, too, so let’s think of ways of recycling removed bamboo.

Lastly...

In the second half of this article, we talked about ICU’s bamboo forest management system and how students can get involved as an important player in bamboo management on campus. We often hear the nature on the ICU campus as “rich” and “beautiful,” but that comes at the cost of hard work of people. Decay of vegetation is in progress and visible in the areas that have not been well taken care of. If you become interested in the issue and want to know more about it or participate in bamboo management, please check out our article on the environmental assessment workshop. Thank you very much for your time reading this long article.