An operating record, not a marketing claim
Sustainability is the way we were built — every trail, every transfer, every booking.
What follows is plain-prose documentation of the practices that have shaped Yakushima SP since its founding in Miyanoura in 2007: the audits we have passed, the trees we have funded, the fuel we run on, and the cap we will not lift.
§ 1 · The certification
A gold credential, held every year since 2019, renewed by a council we do not own and cannot influence.
The Yakushima Sustainable Tourism Council is an independent body composed of the Yakushima Town Office, the Kagoshima Prefecture Environmental Division, the Yakushima Forest Trust, and three elected representatives of island-resident guides. Its gold tier is the highest audit grade the Council issues and is reviewed annually. Yakushima SP has held the gold credential without interruption from 2019 through the 2024 review cycle.
The audit examines eight operating categories: trail-impact measurement per guest-day, waste segregation and removal from protected zones, fuel sourcing and emissions reporting, guide-to-guest ratio on protected routes, wildlife-disturbance logging, employment of island-resident guides, contribution to forest-restoration funding, and third-party guest-satisfaction auditing. Every category must clear the gold threshold to retain the certification. We have not been asked to remediate a category in five consecutive reviews.
We name the Council because we want the credential to be checkable. Any reader may write to the Yakushima Town Office and request confirmation of our current standing. We consider that part of the value of holding it.
§ 2 · The four operating practices
Four mechanisms, audited annually, that turn the certification into a daily reality on the trail.
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01
Yakushima Forest Trust cedar re-stocking
Every booking funds the planting of three Yakusugi cedars through the Yakushima Forest Trust, an independent body that holds the replanting sites and publishes an annual ledger of saplings and survival rates. To date, the operation has funded 41,200 trees across six restoration zones in the interior of the island. The Trust's annual report is public; we provide the link on request.
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02
Carbon-neutral biofuel transfers
All guest transfers — from Miyanoura port to trailheads and back — are conducted in 100% biofuel minivans, introduced to the fleet in 2022 and operated by an island partner who holds the same fuel contract year-round. The biofuel is produced from used cooking oil collected on Yakushima; the chain-of-custody documentation is filed with the Council at every audit.
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03
Plant-to-tracker carbon offset methodology
Since 2018, every guest's full trek footprint — transfers, lodge energy, meals, guide travel to the island — has been measured against a published per-trek emissions ledger and offset through a verified plant-and-protect standard. Each guest receives a one-page footprint report after their trek. We are certified carbon-neutral; we do not claim carbon-negative.
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04
A six-guest cap we will not lift
The maximum group size on any departure is six trekkers, against an island industry average of fourteen. The cap is structural: it is the threshold below which a single guide can hold every guest within conversational range on a one-metre cedar-root trail, and above which trail-widening begins. The cap is not negotiable for private bookings.
§ 3 · Eighteen seasons of cumulative record
Numbers an outside reader can verify, drawn from public audits and our own annual ledger.
41,200
Cedars planted through the Yakushima Forest Trust
12,400+
Guests guided across 3,800+ treks since 2007
98.2%
Jomonsugi summit completion, last five seasons
9yrs
Average guide tenure · 0% turnover in four seasons
All four figures appear in the Yakushima Sustainable Tourism Council's 2024 audit summary and are reproduced here without alteration.
§ 4 · From the founder
“A trail can carry six guests and still feel empty. It can carry fourteen and begin to wear. We chose the number that keeps the cedar roots where they are, and we have refused to lift it for eighteen seasons. That is the whole of our sustainability practice — a refusal to take the next booking if the trail cannot carry it.”
Hirohide Arima
Founder & Senior Guide · Yakushima SP, established 2007
§ 5 · The next departure
Every confirmed departure funds three new cedars — the next one is on the calendar.
Departures for the current season are capped at six guests per group and run from March through early December. The cedar re-stocking contribution is built into every booking; it is not an optional add-on.