As part of Primo Japan’s CSR activities, we continue our Mt. Fuji Nature Conservation project. This is the seventh year since our employees first began the project in 2013. In order to preserve the beautiful scenery of Mt. Fuji, which is also used in our company logo, nineteen employees from around the country participated once again this year.
Although the Mt. Fuji Nature Conservation project is becoming an annual activity, in fact the project continues to evolve little by little each year. In 2018, we first took on the challenge of clearing away non-native plant species(*1) in addition to our volunteer clean-up activities. Clearing away non-native plant species, which continue to increase in number each year, makes it possible to maintain the ecosystem and create an environment in which plants native to Japan are able to grow and flourish. The next year, as our 2019 project, we provided support for the “Mt. Fuji Reforestation Project”, through which humans and nature can coexist anew.
(*1) Plants that have been introduced from other areas through human activity, but which are not native to the local area.
During the morning clean-up activity, President Sawano joined the men’s team for the first time as they removed large oil drums that had been dumped at the foot of Mt. Fuji and collected a large amount of non-biodegradable litter such as glass bottles. Participants were also surprised that bottles of juice and liquor remained in their original state even in places where people had not been for many years. The clean-up site that day was located halfway up Mt. Fuji, at a high elevation where the weather felt chilly, but participants said they kept warm through their hard work cleaning up.
In the afternoon, participants went to an unkept forest area, where they worked while learning more about Japanese forests. In recent years, the impact of the expanding deer population on forest environments has become a problem for society, one that has also come to affect Mt. Fuji, as well. By building protective fences around trees that deer commonly eat, the strong teamwork at Primo Japan was put to good use. Participants divided into teams of four or five members each, and the teams worked diligently carrying logs and building the fences. The fences were built using only materials found on the mountain, without using nails or other fasteners, and required each team to improvise as they put together a fence around each tree using only the available materials. The result was a number of fences that were effective enough to impress even the local people.
At the end of these clean-up activities to restore nature to its original glory, and creating the future through reforestation projects, participants felt the importance of preserving natural environments. Although they were tired from the day’s activities, participants went home feeling refreshed, saying “I can do my best, strengthened by the power of Mt. Fuji!” At Primo Japan, we will continue our efforts to protect the beauty of Mt. Fuji’s natural environment in the future.