Mie Brother's Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori Registered in International Database as an OECM

Brother Industries, Ltd. (Head Office: Nagoya; President: Kazufumi Ikeda) today announced that Mie Brother Precision Industries, Ltd. (Head Office: Mie Prefecture; President: Hiroki Mawatari) (hereinafter "Mie Brother"), a subsidiary of Brother, has had Mie Brother's Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori (hereinafter "Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori"), where biodiversity conservation activities have been carried out since 2017, registered in the World Database on OECMs^*1. Within the Brother Group, Brother Forests in Gujo^*2 was registered in August 2024, making this the second site to receive registration.

Mie Brother, aiming to become a "resource circulation factory in harmony with nature," has been carrying out biodiversity conservation activities at Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori on its factory site since 2017. These activities include planting Kobushi Magnolia, deciduous trees grown from seeds collected in local forests and Japanese Iris and similar species donated from a local organization, as well as continuous weeding and extermination of exotic species. As a result of these efforts, indigenous species such as Weak Ixeris and Japanese Dandelion, absent from the site in recent years, have returned, along with wild bees, kingfishers, Ospreys, and many species of butterflies. The effectiveness of these ongoing biodiversity conservation initiatives at Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori was recognized, leading to certification as a Nationally Certified Sustainably Managed Natural Site for FY2024 (second half) by the Ministry of the Environment, followed by this registration.

In the Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050, Brother has made biodiversity conservation one of the Group's key social issues to engage with, and has defined its vision as "to minimize the environmental impact of business operations and promote activities to restore and conserve the ecosystem beyond that impact." Brother, the parent company, is also a member of the 30by30^*3 Alliance for Biodiversity, a coalition of volunteers launched by the Ministry of the Environment, and is contributing to the achievement of the 30by30 target. Brother will continue initiatives such as biodiversity conservation activities at Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori to remain considerate of the global environment.

• Click here for details on Mie Brother's Saiku Kobushi-no-Mori
  (Link to the Protected Planet website)

1. An acronym for Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures, which refers to areas that are not protected such as national parks, but where biodiversity can be effectively conserved. The database is managed by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
2. A forest in Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, where Brother has been engaged in environmental conservation activities since 2008.
   Brother Forests in Gujo Special Site: Brother SDGs story
3. One of the 2030 global targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in 2022, which aims to effectively conserve more than 30% of land and sea as healthy ecosystems by 2030.