Biodiversity Conservation at Home — Making Cypress Magnets

As part of its biodiversity conservation activities, the Hitachi High-Tech Group has been leasing roughly 2.3 hectares of national forest in Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, since 2005 under the Forestry Agency’s Corporate Forest Program. Named the Hitachi High-Tech Yasato Forest, the site is the subject of a 60-year silviculture program.
At the Hitachi High-Tech Yasato Forest silviculture session on Saturday, April 25, participants conducted thinning and pruning. To put the cypress from that day’s thinning and pruning to good use, 55 volunteers from Hitachi High-Tech’s Naka Area and from Group companies on the same site later took part in making cypress magnets.

Beforehand, a briefing on Thursday, June 4, covered why biodiversity conservation matters and what the Hitachi High-Tech Yasato Forest program involves, deepening participants’ understanding of coexistence with nature and of forest conservation. The volunteers then worked at their workplaces or at home, sanding air-dried cypress rounds by hand to a smooth finish and fitting each with a magnet.

Participants took care to bring out the shape and grain of the wood they had been given, and each finished cypress magnet has a character of its own. Part of the appeal is the warmth that only natural materials have, along with the cypress scent.

The activity gave participants a tangible sense of their connection to nature and a renewed appreciation of what environmental conservation is for. The Hitachi High-Tech Group will continue to pursue a range of initiatives aimed at coexisting with local communities and the natural environment.

For information on the Hitachi High-Tech Group's efforts to conserve biodiversity, please visit the following website.