NPO SHIMOKAWA Research Institute for Forest Future Society, Shimokawa, 098-1206, Japan.
Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan.
Environ Monit Assess. 2021 Nov 12;193(12):793. doi: 10.1007/s10661-021-09434-y.
We have pragmatically but accurately evaluated the natural capital of a small northern town, Shimokawa, Hokkaido, Japan. The key industries are forestry, wood manufacturing, and agriculture. From an environmental perspective, Shimokawa was nominated as a Japanese FutureCity. Consequently, the total natural capital value (NCV) of the forest and agricultural lands was calculated to be 1.326 billion USD/year (or 24,161 USD/ha/year) and 44 million USD/year (or 19,692 USD/ha/year), respectively, in 2012. The sum of these NCVs was more than 7 times greater than the yearly gross production of the town, although the forest had a higher NCV because of the larger area (54,862 ha for forest area), compared with 2953 ha for agricultural area. This substantial NCV is mainly generated by sustainable forest management. The timber account showed that the annual tree growth was greater than the annual harvest of trees. The CO account derived from a one-year calculation showed that the town served as a CO sink at 107,249 t-CO/year due to the large amount of annual tree growth and CO storage in the harvested wood products even if CO was emitted from industries and households. The forestry and wood manufacturing industries, as well as agriculture, created socioeconomic effects for the townspeople, ranging from job creation, study tours, and social welfare. This NCV accounting for Shimokawa town ensures the sustainable use of valuable environmental assets and will help other communities recognize their own NCV accounts.
我们实事求是地评估了日本北海道下川町的自然资本。主要产业为林业、木材加工业和农业。从环境角度看，下川町被提名日本未来城市。因此，2012 年，森林和农业用地的总自然资本价值（NCV）分别被计算为 13.26 亿美元/年（或 24161 美元/公顷/年）和 4400 万美元/年（或 19692 美元/公顷/年）。这些 NCV 的总和超过了该镇年总产值的 7 倍，尽管森林的 NCV 更高，因为其面积更大（54862 公顷的森林面积，相比之下农业面积为 2953 公顷）。这一巨大的 NCV 主要是由可持续的森林管理产生的。木材账户显示，每年的树木生长量大于每年的树木采伐量。由一年计算得出的 CO 账户表明，由于每年树木生长量和收获木材中的 CO 储存量很大，即使工业和家庭排放 CO，该镇每年仍可吸收 107249 吨 CO，成为 CO 汇。林业、木材加工业以及农业为镇民创造了社会经济效益，包括创造就业机会、考察学习和社会福利。这种对下川町的 NCV 核算确保了宝贵环境资产的可持续利用，并将帮助其他社区认识到自身的 NCV 核算。
