As part of its environmental conservation activities, on November 5, 2011, 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, a forest creation effort in which Canon has been participating since 2009, and this year is the third 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 two years. In addition, they also planted 100 Japanese chestnut oak seedlings in a new block of the project.

From the impressions expressed by the participants, it was evident that this was a valuable opportunity to learn about the importance of plants. The participants offered comments such as that, “As there are few opportunities for my children to interact with nature, this was a very good experience,” “I never thought cutting grass would be this much hard work” and “I found out that, although manmade, there is 'a place to appreciate the natural environment' even along Tokyo Bay.”

In addition, there were participants who were also pleased to see the seedlings planted over the past two years growing so well and through that progress also delight in the development of their own children who participated with them last year.