Green Belts and Coastal Risk Management

For more than four centuries Japan has
been developing forested green belts to mitigate coastal
hazards such as sandstorms, salty winds, high tides, and
tsunamis. Although Japan's green belts were severely
damaged by the March 11 tsunami, they did reduce the impact
of waves, and protected houses by capturing floating debris.
Local governments are planning to reconstruct the green
belts as a countermeasure against tsunamis. While local
communities have traditionally taken charge of maintaining
green belts, their role has been weakened because of changes
in society brought about by economic development and
urbanization. The people who lived on the dunes along the
coast had suffered from sandstorms and tidal disasters that
damaged their agricultural products and the pine forests
protected their fields. Masamune allowed the people to sell
wood from branches that were trimmed or had fallen to cover
the expense of maintaining the green belt. The green belt
became less important after the rapid economic growth of the
1970s, as other more effective Disaster Risk Management
(DRM) measures were developed, and electricity and gas
replaced wood as energy sources for people. The
community's role in managing the green belt diminished,
and governments took over its maintenance.