For municipalities
Use the forest environment transfer tax for thinning, wood use and local heat
How a municipality can put its forest environment transfer tax (森林環境譲与税) into thinning, wood recovery and local combined heat and power (熱電併給), in line with the Forestry Agency's regional ecosystem policy.
Where the forest environment transfer tax goes
The Board of Audit reviewed 324 municipalities. At the end of FY2023, 37.7% of the forest environment transfer tax (森林環境譲与税) they had received was still unspent, and 282 of them (87.0%) had no spending plan (執行計画). We offer a use residents can see: thinning, recovery of the wood, and local combined heat and power (熱電併給) from that wood, as one chain your office can report on.
Source: Board of Audit of Japan, FY2024 audit report (forest environment transfer tax)
After the Forest Management System intent survey
Under the Forest Management System (森林経営管理制度), in force since April 2019, a municipality may take on the management of under-managed private forest where it judges this necessary. Work often stalls after the owner-intent survey for two reasons: no one to do the thinning, and no buyer for the wood. Analema can supply both through the project, without adding work to your office.
Aligned with the regional ecosystem policy
The Forestry Agency supports a regional ecosystem (地域内エコシステム): local forest resources used for heat or combined heat and power within the area. A small CHP block using local thinnings fits that model, and is designed to meet the FIT local-use requirement (地域活用要件). Since FY2026, large plants burning general wood at 10,000 kW and above no longer receive new FIT/FIP support.
Source: Forestry Agency, woody biomass use (regional ecosystem); METI, FIT/FIP guidebook 2026 (local-use requirement)
Local jobs and the next generation of forestry
Log production, chipping and plant operation create local work, which falls within the tax's statutory uses: forest maintenance, workforce development and promotion of wood use. A steady buyer for thinned wood lets thinning continue every year after the survey ends.
Heat for public facilities on an ESCO model
Heat for hot-spring facilities, pools, schools and civic buildings can be supplied on an ESCO (shared-savings) model, which keeps the municipality's up-front cost low and replaces fuel oil with heat from local wood. In Tsushima, an ESCO began supplying wood heat to the bathing and pool facility 湯多里ランドつしま in August 2022.
A contribution to disaster resilience
A well-maintained forest supports slope stability by encouraging deeper, more distributed root systems. It does not prevent every hazard, but thinning neglected plantations improves a stand's condition and helps lower disaster risk. A local, distributed heat-and-power source also strengthens energy resilience against supply disruption.
The biomass map as policy evidence
Private data can make visible the problems administration tends to overlook. Our biomass map shows, prefecture by prefecture, the certified-but-not-operating projects and the scale of stranded capacity — which can help set priorities for surveys and maintenance plans.
One block, at the scale of a town
The unit behind every figure
One block, on your land
Three LiPRO HKW300 units run in cascade, one CFD dryer, and one moving-floor fuel bay.
Reference design — design figures from the manufacturer specification and our published model, not measurements from an operating plant. No project is sited or in progress. This three-unit reference block is a distinct configuration from the ten-unit data-center block.
One block runs on roughly 360–600 ha of managed forest under a 50-year rotation, at a sustainable thinning yield of 6–10 t-wet/ha/yr — town-scale, and smaller than a typical ownership-intent survey area. The demand it creates is what pulls a few hundred hectares a year into the survey-maintenance-harvest cycle, year after year.
The honest structure — stated as a feature
The forest environment transfer tax (森林環境譲与税) funds the fuel chain: thinning, workforce development, and wood-use promotion — its own eligible uses. The plant itself is always our capital, on a BOO/ESCO basis. There is no precedent for transfer-tax-funded plant capital, and we do not pretend otherwise — that line is exactly what a section chief can defend upstairs.
Illustrative — precedents, pending primary-source checks
The path follows municipal practice: sounding-type market survey → covenant (協定) → build.
Figures are illustrative and precedent figures are secondary-source until a primary-document check; we bring your own numbers to the sounding.
Common questions
How does this help us spend the forest environment transfer tax?
The fund pays for thinning and wood recovery, and the wood fuels local combined heat and power (熱電併給). Your office can report that chain to residents as a concrete maintenance result.
Does this add work to our forestry desk?
No. After the owner-intent survey under the Forest Management System (森林経営管理制度), Analema supplies the thinning crews and the buyer for the wood, which is where the work usually stalls.
How do we start?
With a conversation: a sounding-type market survey or an exchange of views. Contact us by form or email, addressed to your forestry or agriculture-and-forestry section.
What happens if Analema withdraws or cannot continue?
The ESCO contract carries step-in and site-restoration provisions, and the plant belongs to the project company, so removing it falls to that company, not the municipality. The fuel chain built with the forest environment transfer tax (thinning, workforce and access roads) stays with the community. Contract terms, including exit and assignment, are stated up front, so a section chief can defend the arrangement upstairs.
Not an online purchase — we start with a conversation (a sounding-type market survey or an exchange of views). Reach us by form or email.