■ an activity of locally consuming locally produced timber
an activity of locally consuming locally produced timber “Eat locally harvested food”, “Produce products using locally produced materials”---- these are slogans often made in order to activate local resource recycling and economy. Local timber is also being promoted to be consumed locally by many local governments and organizations for the purpose of conserving local mountains then reinvigorating local forestry by using local timber. “Build with locally harvested timber”, “Use locally harvested timber”, “Build a house using timber from nearby mountains”, “a house made with locally harvested timber”, “a house made with prefectural timber”, “a house made with local timber”-----naming slogans as they like, more than 500 organizations/groups are encouraging to build houses using local timber. Forestry Ministry is also supporting these kinds of activities with a “project to support to build houses with identifiable timber.” A website, “Database for building houses with identifiable timber”, operated by the Japan Housing and Wood Technology Center, is a center of information for the above groups.
Activities of “local production, Local consumption”, represented by building houses with local timber, have many merits, such as succession of local traditions and culture, recycling of wooden resources in small area, preservation of local nature, and activation on local industries. For those who live in urban area, however, who are usually used to mass-produced, flat-rate, and low-cost commodities, to appreciate these merits of “local production, Local consumption” would require certain time and experience. One of the purposes of Woodmiles is to quantify the ecological aspect of local timber then to appeal clearly to common consumers.
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Background of Woodmiles
Global environment issues and timber 
