Hubert Hasenauer, Head of the Institute of Forest Engineering, visited the Japanese Forest Research Institute and the University of Tokyo.

Japan is a country with 70 percent forest cover. With 5 billion cubic meters of standing timber stock, Japan exceeds the Austrian forest stock by a factor of four. Although endowed with this great potential, Japanese forestry lags behind its Austrian counterpart in terms of utilization, as Japan has been importing considerable quantities of wood from abroad for decades.

As a first step towards promoting the sustainable use of wood, the Japanese Forestry Research Institute in Tsukuba is seeking cooperation with international universities and has therefore set up an advisory board, of which Hubert Hasenauer, Head of the Institute of Forest Engineering at BOKU, is a member. The aim is to intensify the use of wood in Japan and to develop the potential of the domestic forest.

After three extremely productive days in Tsukuba, Hubert Hasenauer continued his trip and visited the University of Tokyo, one of Japan's most renowned educational institutions and BOKU's partner university, to take part in a seminar on this topic. Here Hasenauer also met Viktoria Blaschek, a former BOKU student who has just started her PhD studies in Tokyo.

"The typical Japanese hospitality was very impressive, and the exchange with our colleagues was extremely interesting," says Hasenauer, "even if you wouldn't expect it, Japan is a forest country with similar structures and problems to Austria: lots of small forests, very steep terrain and a lot of damage caused by wildlife."

Photo: At the University of Tokyo: (from left) Yasuhiro Nakashima (Dean), Hubert Hasenauer (BOKU), Takeshi Haga (Vice-Dean) and Ryo Kohsaka (Head of the Department of Forest Science)

(Übersetzt mit KI-Unterstützung)

01.11.2023