Midori Ippai Project Activities LINE 299Participation in "Wachikiri (Grass Cutting)" Activity at Kuju Highland under the "Small Village Support Team" Program September 23, 2018 NTT West Oita Group
On September 23, 2018 (Sunday), a total of seven NTT West Oita Group employees took part in the "wachikiri (grass cutting)" activity at Kuju Highland (Taketa City, Inaba district) as members of the "Small Village Support Team" in response to request by the Oita Prefecture Local Vitality Support Office.
The "Small Village Support Team" is a joint initiative between the prefecture and the municipalities to dispatch a support team to protect the livelihood at small villages that are encountering difficulty in performing group work due to manpower shortage issues.
The Support Team is made up of members from registered companies, NPOs and volunteer groups. Its objective is to contribute to the local community through a wide variety of initiatives. In June 2009, Oita Group registered itself as a member and has since been engaging in the activities.
In this round of activity, the members took part in the "wachikiri" grass-cutting activity, which requires considerable effort.
"Wachikiri" is a process to cut grass in the surrounding area to create a fire belt prior to field burning to prevent fire from spreading to surrounding plantations and buildings.
Doing so helps to maintain the fresh verdure when field burning is subsequently performed to burn the dried grass on the grassland for growing new grass.
However, due to manpower shortage as a result of the declining poultry farmer population in recent years as well as more rapid depopulation and aging, many of the grasslands are left unattended.
If the current situation continues, natural transition from grasslands into forests will speed up, thereby impairing the scenery. For this reason, this grass-cutting work plays an extremely vital role.
On the day of the event, a total of about 80 participants who are volunteers or members of the local community gathered in the early morning. They were split into four groups to perform "wachikiri" work across a width of 10 meters in the area around the plantations.
The task was somewhat dangerous as it involved manual operation of grass cutters at a venue that is mainly sloped.
The "wachikiri" area was wider than expected and required heavy labor on a slope, but nonetheless participants commented that they wanted to preserve the bountiful nature and beautiful landscape of Kuju Highland and hand it down to future generations, and that they would like to be asked to take part in the field burning work.
NTT West Oita Group will continue to engage actively in community-based activities to protect the global environment.
- Participating companies
- Members of the local community
Corporate volunteers (PM Kogyo, Yanai Denki Kogyo, Nissin Construction Company, etc.)
NTT West Group - Leader
- Oita Prefecture Planning and Promotion Department, Tourism and Regional Bureau, Local Vitality Support Office, Local Vitality Team
- Venue
- Oita Prefecture, Taketa City, Inaba district (Kuju Highland)
- No. of participants
- 80 (including 18 members of the local community and volunteers, 7 from NTT West Oita Group)
