Oita Prefecture embarks on 'smart forestry' initiative

OITA – With forestry workers growing older, Oita Prefecture has embarked on a "smart forestry" initiative to reduce workloads, partly through the use of drones. Forests cover 72 percent of the prefecture, with most of them cultivated plantations. Despite the use of mechanization for cutting down trees, planting still involves hard physical work, including climbing mountain slopes while carrying nursery trees weighing up to 30 kg. Forestry association workers are currently the local industry's main workforce, but 44 percent of them are 60 or older. Young people are reluctant to join their ranks, due partly to the physical labor.