Nature conservation

History of Nature Conservation movement

The first Movement
TThe first nature conservation movement was started by the movement of anti-hydroelectric dam construction. It is said that Mr. Hirano Chozou decided to live in Oze and he opposed to the dam construction. The constrction of a hydroelectric dam that had been planned in the area since 1903 was partially abandoned in 1996 by TEPCO(Tokyo Electric Company), owner of seventy percent of the land in Oze.

In 1950's, once Oze became famous for sightseeing place, road construction for automobiles was started. After the high concentration of visitors was blamed as the culprit for Oze's environmental problems. That is destruction of vegetation, erosion of hiking trails, introduction of foreign plant species, disposal of garbage, human wastes, sewage and emissions from automobiles.

Oze is now recognized as the birthplace of the nature conservation movement in this country. "take your own garbage home" campaign, which began in 1972, and garbage bins around the area were all removed the follwing year.
No soap is allowed to use at mountain huts in Oze for washing body. Construction of wooden footpath
The construction of over 60 km of wooden footpaths since the early 1950's in order to protect the wetlands.