**3.1.1 Description**

This cooperative was founded in 1971. In fiscal year 2009, there were 184 members and the cooperative was managing 563 ha of forest, including 466 ha of planted forest (Hyogo Prefecture, 2011b). This cooperative has planted a substantial number of coniferous trees; currently 82.8% of its land is planted forest, which is extremely high compared to the national average of 41.7% in non-national forests in this prefecture (Hyogo Prefecture, 2011a). *Cryptomeria japonica* and *Chamaecyparis obtusa* are the two main species in the planted forest. The age-class distribution of the forest is as follows19: 1.6% (1–10 years), 2.4% (11–20 years), 12.2% (21–30 years), 31.8% (31–40 years), 46.7% (41–50 years), 2.7% (51–60 years), and 2.6% (61 years). Thus, there is a large area of 30- to 50-year-old trees. As this cooperative was founded in 1971, trees that are about 40 or more years old were planted before the modernization of rights. Approximately half of the planted forest was already planted during the period when the forest was legally common forest. Generally, common forest is not utilized intensively, but in this case, coniferous trees had been planted in a large area.
