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| The beech forest is one of the
representative forests in the cool-temperate zone in the northern hemisphere.
The Shirakami Sanchi, straddling Aomori and Akita Prefectures, have the
world’s largest remaining beech forest, and the central part of the forest
has never been tampered with by humans, through activities such as logging,
and so remains in its pristine state. The forest is home to numerous kinds
of fauna and flora, which have lived here generation after generation
for more than eight thousand years. This is one of the important reasons
why the Mountains have been included in the World Heritage List. (The
green part in the map shows the extent of the Shirakami Sanchi. The beige
part shows the area designed as a World Heritage area.)
(General Editor: Munekatsu Saito)(Images provided by Kazuhiro Asuka, Masayuki Egawa, Shuji Kudo, Munekatsu Saito, Masashi Nishiguchi, and Keiji Miyakawa) |