The mountains of central Honshu are called the Japanese Alps, and they earn it: a barrier of three-thousand-metre peaks that catches the winter monsoon off the Sea of Japan and turns it into some of the heaviest snowfall on the planet. Villages here have built steep thatched roofs for centuries because anything shallower would collapse under the weight.
The forests climb from beech and oak into subalpine fir and then to the alpine zone, where relict species stranded since the ice age persist: the rock ptarmigan, the Japanese serow. The snow monkeys that bathe in the hot springs are the most photographed animals in Japan and live further north than any other primate on Earth. Below them, the water from this snowpack irrigates the rice of half the country.
The organizations here protect the alpine zone from the pressure of enormous visitor numbers, defend the old beech forests, and manage the deer whose populations have exploded in the absence of wolves and which are eating the understorey out of the mountains.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
16 organizations working across this landscape.
Butterfly Project
Butterfly Project is a 1% for the Planet environmental partner in Hokuto-shi, Yamanashi, Japan, associated with food systems work. Its public 1% profile confirms its...
Environmental investigation about the Sainokuni-resource of circulation factries
Environmental investigation about the Sainokuni-resource of circulation factries is a 1% for the Planet nature nonprofit partner associated with toxics & pollution. ...
NGO Life Investigation Agency
NGO Life Investigation Agency is a 1% for the Planet nature nonprofit partner associated with biodiversity & wildlife. Based in Chikuma-shi, Nagano, Japan, it is inc...
Protect Our Winters (POW) Japan
アウトドアコミュニティによる気候変動の問題に取り組む国際草の根ムーブメント
Yoro no Mori
Yoro no Mori is an association that aims to redevelop and revitalize untended forests in rural areas, build new communal spaces, and improve biodiversity. This orga...
特定非営利活動法人 中池見ねっと
Environmental Education for Biodiversity