Sustainable Forest Management

Seedling Cultivation and Planting

Securing superior seedlings is a crucial first step toward sustainable forest management. Stable production of superior seedlings leads to appropriate forestation. Sumitomo Forestry was the first to modernize container seedling production. We are contributing to the sustainability of forest resources and active resource production through facility-based seedling production under appropriate environmental management. In Japan, we have six seedling production facilities to produce 2 million seedlings per year and supply them to our own forests as well as to national forests and privately-owned forests throughout Japan. Overseas, in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, we produce our own seedlings for planting. Also, in New Zealand and every other region where we do business, we are managing forests in a sustainable manner by repeating the cycle of planting, growing and harvesting trees.

Cultivation

The Sumitomo Forestry Group owns and manages approximately 48,000 hectares of forests in Japan and approximately 231,000 hectares of forests overseas. We strive to maintain and improve the forests’ public benefits by implementing appropriate management for the growth of trees in these forests throughout the process including planting trees, clearing underbrush, pruning, and thinning.

Consideration for Biodiversity

The Sumitomo Forestry Group protects the following forest areas as conservation forests based on the results of high conservation value (HCV) assessments and other forest surveys and evaluations that it has conducted: areas that have great impact on biodiversity, areas that are of particular importance in terms of biodiversity, areas adjacent to these areas, and areas not suitable for forestry.
Based on the results of the HCV assessments and other forest surveys and evaluations that we had conducted at 23 sites (with a total area of 279,040 hectares), we managed 22 sites (with a total area of 98,761 hectares) as conservation forests in fiscal 2025. In the total areas, we do not include social forest and non-operating forest areas.

Carbon stocks* of the forests owned by the Sumitomo Forestry Group in Japan at the end of fiscal 2025 were 14.19 million t-CO₂ (up 140,000 t-CO₂ from the previous fiscal year’s level). Carbon stocks of the Group’s overseas planted forests were 51.15 million t-CO₂ (down 370,000 t-CO₂ year on year).

*Formula to Calculate Carbon Stock
Stem volume per hectare of forest × biomass expansion factor × (1 + ratio of underground area to aboveground area) × volume density × carbon content ×CO₂ conversion factor
Parameters such as Stem volume and expansion factor are based on own plot data for domestic forests, WSL, and MTI, while OBT and TPF refer to standard values of each country, etc. For protected forests in overseas forests, carbon stock is assumed to be zero for non-forested and low accumulation areas such as rivers, lakes, roads, etc., and degraded forests in WSLs and MTI

Carbon Stock of Forests in Japan and Overseas

Logging and Usage

The Sumitomo Forestry Group logged approximately 168.17 hectares of trees (including thinning) in Japan and approximately 5,725 hectares of trees overseas in fiscal 2025 in forests it owns or manages based on the long-term logging plans. Harvested wood is milled and processed before finally reaching the market as products such as housing materials and furniture. In the case of wood turned into structural materials for housing, the products are used for several decades. Even after being dismantled or at the end of their product life, wooden buildings and timber and wood products can be reused as fiberboards or other building materials or as a raw material for making paper, and all that time they will continue to retain the absorbed CO₂. The amount of CO₂ released when wood is ultimately burned as a wood fuel is equivalent to the amount absorbed from the atmosphere as trees grow, and therefore it does not represent an increase in atmospheric CO₂ over the life cycle of the tree.

Reforestation

Harvesting and using wood alone will lead to a diminishing of forest resources that will be used to produce wood products. The Sumitomo Forestry Group therefore promotes sustainable forest management by always planting new trees after logging.

In fiscal 2025, we planted trees on 110.8 hectares of land in Japan, and on 6,156 hectares of land overseas. The newly planted trees will absorb CO₂ in their growth and retain it as carbon.