Climate Change Adaptation in Non-Timber Forest Products: How Resilient are Small Shiitake Producers?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Kunisaki GIAHS site, Oita Prefecture, Japan.

Source: Hakuchizu Nurinuri. (2021). Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://n.freemap.jp/.

Figure 2. (a- d) Log-cultivated shiitake production in the Kunisaki GIAHS. (a) and (b) are taken by author in 2020. (a) and (b) are taken in Kunisaki City and in Bungo Takada City, respectively. (c) is based on Kunisaki GIAHS (Kunisaki GIAHS, 2021); Shiitake producer (interview, Sept 6, 2021). (d) is provided by courtesy of Toshifumi Tokumaru, 2021, Kunisaki City.

Figure 3. (a-c) The data for (a) was from The Musashi Observatory located at 33°28′N131°44′E (Japan Meteorological Agency, 2021a). In (b-c), n indicates the sample size.

Table 1. Brand standards of shiitake within the Kunisaki GIAHS site.

	Brand name
	Kaori Chan	GIAHS Regional Brand Certificate	Umamidake
Management	Shiitake cooperative	Kunisaki GIAHS	Oita Prefecture
Form standard	Unspecified	〇 Three specified forms	Unspecified
Varieties	〇 Low-temperature varieties	Unspecified	〇 Five low-temperature and two middle-temperature varieties
Place of production (geographical boundary)	〇 Producers are registered cooperative members operating within the business region of the Kunisaki branch of the shiitake cooperative (Bungo Takada City, Kitsuki City, Usa City, and Kunisaki City)	〇 Producers are registered with the Kunisaki GIAHS. Production amount is verified; the locations of forests for harvesting logs, fusekomi, and hodaba are checked.	Producers in Oita Prefecture registered with the prefecture
Quality according to standards set by the shiitake cooperative	Regular	Deluxe	Regular (all traders located in the prefecture can apply for certification)

Source: Shiitake cooperative staff (interview, April 21, 2021). Note. 〇 indicates distinctive factors that compare the three brands.

Table 2. Adaptation strategies of shiitake producers in the Kunisaki GIAHS site.

Adaptation	Intended purpose
Adding branches and leaves on top of fusekomi	Lowering the temperature inside fusekomi
Shifting from low- to middle-temperature shiitake	Stabilizing production amid global warming-induced changes
Allowing some weeds to remain around fusekomi	Preventing reflected heat from affecting fusekomi
Adding back branches and leaves to the fusekomi swept away by typhoon	Maintaining fusekomi
Sprinkling water in winter	Providing moisture and stimulation for the sprouting and growth of shiitake
Moving bed logs or changing the location of hodaba	Moving bed logs to cooler hodaba and stimulating shiitake sprouting
Changing the location of fusekomi	Placing fusekomi in a cooler location

Table 3. Classification results.

		Ratio of low-temperature shiitake production	Predicted group membership		Total
			0	1
Original	Count	Less than the average (0)	20	3	23
		More than the average (1)	2	18	20
	%	Less than the average (0)	87.0	13.0	100.0
		More than the average (1)	10.0	90.0	100.0
Grouped for cross-validation	Count	Less than the average (0)	17	6	23
		More than the average (1)	4	16	20
	%	Less than the average (0)	73.9	26.1	100.0
		More than the average (1)	20.0	80.0	100.0

Table 4. Standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients.

	Function 1
Transmission of cultivation knowledge from a parent	0.425
Consultation with another producer in Kunisaki City when experiencing problems	−0.312
Cost concern because of difficulty in implementing climate change countermeasures	0.473
Elevation	−0.216
Slope	−0.678
Annual sales	−0.633
Selling with the Kaori Chan brand	0.840
Perceived precipitation increase in spring	0.155

Figure 4. Outlook for potential adaptations to shiitake production at the Kunisaki GIAHS site.

Note: + and − indicate the positive and negative effects, respectively, of the variables on low-temperature shiitake production.

Kunisaki Peninsula Usa Area GIAHS (Kunisaki GIAHS). (2021). Kunisaki Peninsula Usa Area Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. Retrieved November 28, 2021, from https://www.kunisaki-usa-giahs.com/. [in Japanese]

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Japan Meteorological Agency. (2021a). Automated meteorological data acquisition. Retrieved November 28, 2021, from https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/know/amedas/kaisetsu.html. [in Japanese]

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Data availability statement

Data for this article are reserved in availability because any individual data can identify a specific respondent. The supplementary material provides the relevant items of the questionnaire. For a further inquiry, contact the corresponding author.