FUJI ROCK FOREST PROJECT 2019

It isn’t an easy thing to maintain and preserve the lush nature surrounding Naeba where Fuji Rock Festival is held every year. The town of Naeba, the county of Yuzawa and Niigata prefecture, along with the organizers of the festival, Smash, are working towards conserving its environment.

Split your chopsticks and keep Japan’s forests healthy!

One undertaking of the Fuji Rock Forest Project is chopsticks. With help from Jeep, the festival gathers wood from the cedar trees in and around the festival venue to be used to make the 170,000 pairs of chopsticks used in and around the festival. By using wood from the community, and planting new trees to replace those cut down, the festival works to keep the forest healthy and cut down on CO2 emissions.

Japan boasts lush forest lands. That said, Japan is only using just over 30% of its woodland resources. Less then 10% is being used to make disposable chopsticks and most of the material used comes from overseas. Over 20 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used in Japan yearly making that about 150 pairs per person per year. You might think that a pair of chopsticks don’t make a difference overall and yes, 1 pair isn’t. But each and every bit counts when working towards a healthy environment.

Use a pair of our chopsticks and pay respects to the forests of Naeba. Your act of using a pair of these chopsticks to have a tasty meal leads to the health of the festival and its forests.

• Thinning the forests surrounding Fuji Rock Festival venue

  
  Lumber from forestland surrounding the Fuji Rock venue. It may seem like cutting trees and protecting the forest don’t match but by keeping the forests healthy by thinning them leads to new trees growing.

• Transporting Cedar lumber to Ishikawa and Fukushima prefectures

  Cedar cut in and around the festival venue are taken to NPO Atago located in Fukushima and Nakamoto Chopstick Company in Ishikawa. Forests cultivated for lumber in Japan are far from being managed well and many of these forests have begun to rot. Lumber being imported from overseas have increased which leads to even less domestic lumber being used. This means trees which need to be used are being wasted and forests aren’t being managed well.

• Manufacturing 170,000 pairs of chopsticks

  
  170,000 pairs of chopsticks are manufactured by hand and machine. 20,000 of these are imprinted with “Fuji Rock Forest x Jeep” thanks to the support of Jeep Japan. The cedar chopsticks are not only good to use but smell faintly of the forest and do not require bleaching or other chemical treatments.

Making use of lumber from around the festival with “Fuji Rock Paper”

With the cooperation of ChuEtsu Pulp, trees thinned from forestland surrounding the festival is used to make paper and is sold and used as “Fuji Rock Paper”. Offical pamphlets, the freepaper, Festival Echo, and flyers are made using the paper. Thinning forests means to cut out overgrown portions of the forest to create and healthy environment for the entire forest bringing sunlight and air into the forest.

Feeling the forest at the “Boardwalk”

The boardwalk runs through a total of 1.4km of forest. The boardwalk was built using volunteers so as to not trample the forest floor. As the area gets heavy snowfall during the winter, the boardwalk needs to be maintained and is done so with volunteers every year. Old portions of the boardwalk are recycled into original merchandise the proceeds of which in turn supports the project.

Fuji Rock Forest Project Commitee

Niigata Prefecture, town of Yuzawa, Yuzawa Tourism Association, Yuzawa Onsen Tourism Association, Naeba Tourism Association, Prince Hotel, Chuetsu Pulp Co., Morishita-gumi, Kobayashi Sangyo, Smash Corp.

NEW POWER GEAR

「Reduce CO2!」

Electricity used on this whole field is produced from bio diesel and solar power to tackle CO2 emissions.
Featuring the Gypsy Avalon stage, the area offers a place for organizations tackling problems such as human rights, world peace, the environment, disaster relief and more at the NGO Village area along with the Organic Village which offers up ecologically friendly items and a fleamarket where audience members can sell hand made instruments and goods.

Recycling Used Tempura Oil

Recycled tempura oil is used as bio-diesel to reduce CO2 emmisions. The fuel is used for lighting and stage power at areas in the Field of Heaven, Avalon Field and Kids Land.

Using Solar Energy

The Avalon Stage utilizes solar energy to power sound and instruments to reduce CO2 emmisions.

Creating Clean Energy

At the New Power Gear Dome in the NGO village, audience members can experience generating clean power. Pedal the bicycle and keep the Fuji Rock theme song playing!

Gomi Zero Navigation

「Recycling Fuji Rock Waste at Fuji Rock!」

Many of us have seen pictures of sea turtles with plastic straws sticking in them or heard of plastic garbage being extracted from the stomachs of dead whales but the amount of plastic garbage we are putting in to the oceans has become a serious problem. By changing our thinking to “Garbage = Resource” and recycling as much as we can, the festival, along with the NPO, iPledge, are working to make the festival a waste free festival by recycling the waste created at the festival – at the festival.

【Put Plastic Bottles in the Bin】

The plastic bottles gathered at this summer’s festival will be used to make the garbage bags handed out at the festival entrance to each festival goer. The caps from the bottles are used to make benchs which are placed around the festival.

【Paper Cups to Toilet Paper】

Paper cups gathered at the festival are recycled into toilet paper to be used at next year’s festival.

【Used Chopsticks Become Construction Material】

Disposable chopsticks and skewers used at the festival are recycled into construction materials.

NGO Village

Working towards a better world!

Located in a corner of the NEW POWER GEAR FIELD / AVALON area, the NGO Village is a place which features booths by NGOs. Educate yourself on what societal issues the NGOs are tackling amidst a beautiful forest environment.

This Year’s Theme and Participating Organizations

This year’s theme is “Energy & the Environment”, “International Cooperation” and “Humanity”. Check out the booths you find interesting and learn something new!

Gathering Donations for Disaster Relief

Donations are gathered and sent along with proceeds gathered by Benefit for NIPPON and donated to charities working to help children in the disaster stricken Fukushima area.

Participating Organizations

ipledge / rainbow echo / REPP / RA -energy design / BDF Co.,Ltd / Echigo Nagaoka Biomass Regional Association / Green Apple / MITSUHO Generate / OMNI international Co.,Ltd / Camp Yorozu Clinic /Connectech / Akita Shoten / I’s Factory