Are Japan's Traditional Wooden Homes Trashing the World's Forests? Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - Mark Graffis ENS -- Environment News Service TOKYO, Japan, June 9, 1999 (ENS) - In Japan, houses last between 22 and 25 years. After that, they are torn down and re-built. Friends of the Earth-Japan says this "scrap and build housing policy" has led to the clearcutting of forests worldwide. The conservation group has started an eco-housing campaign to tackle what it calls "Japan's wasteful use of timber in housing construction." The campaign will try to convince Japanese consumers of the value of long-lasting houses made of domestically produced timber. "We hope to show to the public the many lifestyle and ecological benefits of having a long lasting and energy and wood efficient house. We plan to create a new trend among the consumers in Japan for this type of home. Japan is ready for this, we believe," says Hiroki Sugaya, coordinator of the eco-housing project. In November 1998, the Construction Ministry figures show that Japan's housing starts fell 12.9 percent in October from October 1997, the 22nd year-over-year decline in a row. Still, says Friends of the Earth, Japan had over 1.3 housing starts in 1998, "an astronomical figure given the size of the population." The forests of the world are suffering because of Japan's scrap and build housing policy, the group warns. Japan's timber consumption has been a driving force behind over-logging of forests in the Philippines, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Papua New Guinea, and Equatorial Africa, Friends of the Earth-Japan (FoE-Japan) says. Josh Newell, coordinator of FoE-Japan's Siberia Forest Hotspot Project says, "We are particularly concerned about Japanese consumption of Siberian timber. Russia's is now Japan's largest source of raw logs, with imports in 1998 reaching five million cubic metres. Over 80 percent of imported Russian timber is used in housing construction." "Japan will continue to increase imports of Siberian timber as restrictions limit raw log exports from traditional softwood sources such as the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Japanese plywood industry is also switching from tropical luan timber to Russian larch as the primary wood used in plywood construction," says Newell. For the eco-housing campaign, FoE-Japan has teamed up with OM Solar Association, a group of architects who specialize in production of durable, solar-powered houses that use domestic timber and alternative building materials. The first year of the campaign will focus on preparing a booklet highlighting advantages of this housing style. A seminar at an OM solar house in Tokyo is planned for government officials, media, housing company representatives, and non-governmental organizations. The eco-housing campaign will work closely with the media, particularly television, to reach a wide public audience. Key allies in the campaign will include the domestic timber industry, consumer's unions, NGOs, and researchers. The campaign will take on the issue of reduction of tariffs on wood products now being discussed in the World Trade Organization and APEC. Environmentalists fear that reduction of tariffs on wood will make the Japanese timber industry unable to compete with inexpensive timber imported from abroad. This could lead to an increase in Japan's consumption of the world's diminishing forest resources. (c) Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.11.99-03:33:06-18663