Plant surveys conducted in conjunction with mountain forest development have revealed the existence of a large number of endangered plant species, including Cypripedium macranthos var. speciosum, which is at risk of extinction in the wild in Iwate Prefecture. Therefore, in this study, we designed countermeasures aimed at conservation of this species in situ. First, we established a conservation area for transplanting C. macranthos var. speciosum growing in a forest development area, and analyzed soil from 19 candidate transplantation sites near wild growing C. macranthos var. speciosum plants within the conservation area. We transplanted C. macranthos var. speciosum to 12 locations selected on the basis of the aforementioned soil analysis, and selected six of the locations where C. macranthos var. speciosum survived for study. As a preliminary trial, we conducted a fieldplot transplant experiment using 30 plants and confirmed that the application of Oyamada growth solution, which has been demonstrated to be effective for artificial propagation, also promoted growth in soil. From 2016 to 2017, we transplanted seven plants to the six locations within the conservation area. The plants were periodically supplied with Oyamada growth solution and measures to improve the light environment and to prevent damage by mammals and insects were implemented. The impact of these measures was evaluated annually using a C. macranthos var. speciosum extinction risk assessment sheet that was developed for this study. All of the transplanted C. macranthos var. speciosum plants survived and all wild growing plants for which conservation measures were implemented exhibited increased numbers of shoots, flowers and fruits, demonstrating the efficacy of the conservation measures.

Drawing tests were conducted to clarify the cultural services provided by ecosystems, primarily focusing on living things and children’s related experiences （nature experiences） in a region. In the drawing test, target primary school children （5th grade, n=25） were instructed to draw as many species as possible with landscape elements that they recognize in their daily lives. Twenty-two completed drawings were obtained from primary school children in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Their drawings provided highly reliable and accurate information about their experiences of nature, the natural environment, and generally realistic landscape elements, including living things they have seen or eaten. The most often recorded experience was “have seen”, while the dominant biological taxon in the elements was plants. A positive correlation was found between the number of living thing types and the number of experience categories in their drawings. These results suggested that plants play an important role in children’s experiences of nature. The abundance of children’s experiences in nature, potentially leading to the enjoyment of cultural services, could be supported by the abundance of biological elements in the landscape. The drawing test approach may be an effective learning method for higher-grade primary school children to deepen their understanding of nature, culture, and their lives by sharing the drawings of children from different countries or regions. Our subsequent challenge is to aggregate various practices for these drawing tests and assess their output to establish a teaching method for primary education that achieves an integration of “multicultural coexistence” and “living in harmony with nature.”

In this study, the habitat of bumblebees, which is indispensable for pollination and maintenance of fruiting success of Cypripedium japonicum Thunb., is estimated from the landscape structure around the habitat and the flowering status of flower-visiting plants, and the relationship with the fruiting success of Cypripedium japonicum is examined. The purpose is to help conserve the land. Five research sites, Sakura-A, Sakura-B, Yotsukaido-A, Yotsukaido-B and Ichihara-A, supporting orchid communities were established in northwestern Chiba Prefecture. The number of individual plants, as well as the flowering and fruiting success rates, were observed for each community. The characteristics of the surrounding landscape were identified, and the relationship with the fruiting success rate was analyzed for each community. Based on the foraging behavior of the bumble bees, a 1 km radius target area was established around each of the five sites. The QGIS application was utilized to calculate the total area accounted for by each of the eight landscape categories for each of the five research sites. Extant research was used to identify the pollen sources preferred by the two species of bumble bee prevalent in the study region, Bombus ardens ardens Smith and Bombus diversus diversus Smith; and route censuses, were employed to quantify the presence and flowering status of these plants for each of the three sites（Sakura-A, Yotsukaido-A, -B）. The fruiting success rates were higher in areas with larger areas of broad-leaved forests. One possible explanation for this is that abandoned animal burrows suitable for bumble bee nesting sites are more prevalent in the broad-leaved forest. Another explanation may be that more pollen sources are available in this habitat. The fruiting success rate was low for areas with smaller percentages of forest cover. Higher concentrations of coniferous tree plantations were also associated with lower fruiting success rates; and thus support very little forest floor vegetation.

In Myanmar, even in rural areas, the decline of forests and the increase in usage opportunity of industrial products make it difficult to inherit the folk knowledge of the ecology and usage of trees. The school education there doesn’t sufficiently cover this function. Therefore, aiming on beginning of plant science and environmental education based on the experiential approach in primary schools, we tried introducing "Educational Tree Garden" as a place and material for those curriculums, and demonstrating environmental education at total of 10 schools for three years. Children planted a total of 204 seedlings of 41 useful tree species from 17 families as part of environmental learning. After one month, we conducted a technical inspection on the garden. And one year later, we grasped the management status and future plans of it, in addition to the survey of saplings’ survival. As a result, we found the future possibility of experiential education and of inheriting folk knowledge by utilizing the "Educational Tree Garden".