Japan: Forests and Copper exploitation in the Philippines Flashcards
Early modern predation 1550-1670 AD:
Japan returned to Tokugawa rule
Transition to regenerative forestry but foreshadowed by period of heavy deforestation latter half of 16thC
Another construction surge - fuelled by population growth
Led to massive increase in city building, monuments and villages
Very little of the pacific belt remained forested
Led again to issues of erosion and flooding impacting lowland regions
Kinai basin again badly impacted
Gives rise to protection - government and villagers support own interests
Protective measures ranged from - discouraging slash and burn practices, requiring official sanction to deforest, official monitoring and reporting of forest sizes, ordered plantations, banning of forestry on river banks
Plantation forestry emerged rapidly with plantation culture continuing into the 19th Century
Some successes better than others but ensured reserves
Ancient predation: Totman (1989)
600-850
Japan begins to civilise
Couples with the emergence of large scale architecture from mainland Asia
Construction boom = increasing logs
Building of Monasteries, Shrines, Palaces and Mansions
Elite regularly built new properties over repairing issue of rot and termites
Tested carrying capacity of the Kinai Basin and led to massive deforestation around Heian and Nara
Trees sought further upslope - worse quality
Issues of erosion, fires and flooding emerge + increased dependency on agriculture
Leads to gov and monasteries closing forest to protect what was left
Building attitudes change - pressure on forest and eases
Medieval times - deforestation but lesser
Why was there a second construction boom in the 1550s?
Because of rapid population growth
Much of the archipelago was deforested to support this boom in cities and villages
Modern predation…
1900-1950
Japan enters period with a reserve of forested land
Becomes cheaper to import so conservation becomes less of an issue
Approaching the war of the pacific - demand increases - Japan begins exporting to support military budgets
Postwar - mass destruction - local demand increases = 15% deforestation
Much government support for protecting forests post war but industry enters into recession regardless.
Why does the forest industry enter into recession?
1⃣ Changing energy sources - nat gas replaces coal. Coal unusable in apartments for fuel - logs less required
2⃣ Cheaper imports - reduces price of Japan’s own timbers Lessing deforestation but also lessening investment in protection
3⃣ Private ownership - with low returns, private land owners didn’t invest in the protection of their forests = declining quality
4⃣ Monoculture - diseases easier to spread. Bark beetles emerge in Kyushu, limited by burning of dead trees. Approaching WW2 concerns decline - beetle emerges in Honshu district. By 1947, 720,000 cubic meters lost to beetle (Kobayashi, 1978)
5⃣ Conflicting interest - city dwellers see forest as nature, local villagers need to fund funerals
2 stages of resource relationships between Japan and the Philippines…. Dates?
Stage one 1950-60s - post war industrial expansion
Stage two 1970-80s - restructuring of economy, movement of industry overseas. Pursuit of more sophisticated industries.
Japan started paying reparations in 1956 for damage it had caused in the Philippines….how much did the Philippines want? How much did they get? And why so late?
They wanted $8bn
They got $550 million
American involvement post-WW2 ➡ recognised demands of SE Asian nations impacted by Japan’s actions during the war but also recognised that Japan could potentially be a US ally in stopping communist expansion in Asia. Therefore it sought to not unduly weaken Japan and its returning economic growth. The Americans overlooked many of the demands.
(Ofreneo,1993)
A peace treaty was sought and a draft created in 1950….a treaty was signed eventually in 1951. What was the difference between the two?
The first treaty made no reference to reparations of any sort.
The second identified that Japan had a depleted natural resource base and needed resources from the surrounding energy to fuel its economic growth.
The second treaty included a form of ‘service reparation’.
What was the agreed “service reparation”?
1⃣ Natural resources neighbouring countries had in abundance would be sent to Japan.
2⃣ Japan processed the raw materials: adding value.
3⃣ Goods sold back to SE Asian neighbours.
Ofreneo, 1993
What did this mean for Japan?
Japan was able to sell value added goods, gain access to a resource base and kick start its economic development once more.
In the process it established strong trade links with the countries it had previously ruined at war.
Lower reparation terms were agreed by 1956 and full commercial trade between Japan and the Philippines recommenced. Japan was to pay $550 million to the Philippines over a 20 year window in the form of:
CAPITAL GOODS AND SERVICES
What capital goods and services did Japan provide?
It shipped old technology and equipment to the Philippines to help the country’s ISI programme.
It also established a market for raw materials which were imported by Japan who added value and sold the goods back to the Philippines.
This gave rise to an increase in two industries in the Philippines today widely blamed for the degradation of the Philippine environment: logging and mining. Started in the mid 1950s for 20 years
Ofreneo, 1993
The Philippines landmass =
30 million ha
How much is classified as forestland?
~50%
How much remains today?
About 6.5 million ha
<1million ha are virgin forests.
In the 1950s what % of exports were accounted for by forest products?
5%
