As part of its environmental conservation activities, this year as well, on November 11, 2012, Canon employees and their family members participated in a forest creation activity at Wakasu Kaihin Park in Koto Ward, Tokyo.

This activity is an endeavor under the Uruoi-no-mori (verdant forest) Project, an effort in which Canon has been participating since 2009, and this year is the fourth time it has been carried out. Organized by the Community Partnership Support Center, this project works in cooperation with Wakasu Kaihin Park to carry out coastal tree planting and forest maintenance, based on the theme of “working together to create a coastal forest along Tokyo Bay capable of sustaining beetles.”

The 32 employees and their family members who volunteered to participate cleared away weeds that had grown around the saplings that Canon volunteers had planted for this project over the past three times the activity has been held. In addition, they also planted 100 Japanese chestnut oak and chinquapin chestnut seedlings in a new block of the project.

From the impressions expressed by the participants, it was evident that this was a valuable opportunity for parents and children to learn about the importance of plants together. The participants offered comments such as that, “As there are usually few opportunities for my children to interact with nature, this was a very good experience,” “It is good to be able to see the trees as they grow, through ongoing participation in this project. I hope this activity will continue until the trees mature to form a magnificent forest" and “It was good to be able to hear about such educational things as how groves of trees are managed and the varieties of acorns there are.”

In addition, as the seedlings planted over the past three times this activity was held were growing so well, many participants already expressed such thoughts as that, “I look forward to seeing how the seedlings we planted this year will have grown next year.”