Ueno Park is flexibly managed to meet its historical background and current needs. To cover part of the expenses to manage urban parks, TMG allowed some private entities to run their businesses such as a restaurant and make a profit inside the park. While the Urban Park Act of 1956 prohibits any kind of private business activities in urban parks to avoid uncontrolled development, the government identified restaurants and small shops as part of the park facility that can be built, operated, and managed by private operators to meet public interest under government controls and allowed them to continue their commercial activities. This actions by TMG follows the Urban Park Act that allowed local governments to grant third party use or occupation of property, and construction and management of facilities. Consequently, several restaurants and small shops exist as park facilities in Ueno Park.

Accompanied by private redevelopment projects, the national government decided to restore the old redbrick building of Tokyo Station, initially built in 1912 and damaged by firebombing during World War II. While the symbolic building restoration was expected to have broader social and cultural benefits for the neighboring business districts, its project cost was estimated around JPY50 billion. In order to meet both social and commercial objectives, the site of Tokyo Station was extensively designated as a zone for the special FAR exemption and allowed to transfer the unused FARs from the historic redbrick building to the neighboring lots for new commercial tower developments. The station building restoration, partially financed by the FAR transfer revenues, was successfully completed in 2013 by a railway company, which also developed two 205-meter tall skyscrapers among the towers with extra FARs, and reinvested the increase in land value of the densified grade-A office buildings to cover the railway finance. To improve the district further, the current provision of a multimodal transportation square for regular bus and taxi services plans is to be completed by East Japan Railway Company in partnership with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2017.

Results of the participatory mapping and forest inventory allowed to assess forest resources and identify concrete priority options for landscape restoration in 4 zones.

Criteria for selecting priority options:

1. promote the restoration of natural forests, fragile and specific ecosystems,
2. achieve societal goals and objectives related to the conservation of biodiversity and human well-being,
3. to be implemented in the framework of existing projects in different land tenure types (protected areas, community or village forests, sacred sites),
4. limiting the fragmentation of forest areas and maintaining the connection of natural habitats.

Restoration options include the following:

1. Densely populated land (forest land, farmland, settlements): forest enrichment, agroforestry, river bank restoration)
2. Agricultural land: improved community forest management, enrichment of agroforestry systems, buffer zones around water bodies, wood energy forests
3. Dense forest, shrubland, riparian forests & savannahs: restoration of swampy savanna, riverbanks & community forests, fallow enrichment, improved pasture management
4. Wetlands, marshes, mangroves, grasslands: wetland & mangrove restoration

The inventory of natural forests and plantations was based on the participatory mapping. It covered the following steps:

1. Training of forest inventory teams

2. Definition of forest types and layers (stratification): analysis and interpretation of RapidEye 2013-2014 satellite images (resolution of 5 m x 5 m)

3. Implementation of pre-inventory: Assessment of results from national forest inventory, preparation of field work, determination of variation coefficient and statistical method, measurement of 20 circular plots. Inventory of main forest stand with a 20 m radius for samples ≥ 10 cm in diameter and ≥ 1.30 m height; inventory of forest undergrowth in circular plots with 4 m radius on trees and shrubs samples with a diameter between 5 and 10 cm open and a height ≥ 1.30 m

4. Implementation of inventory: preparation of field work, measurement of 173 circular plots with same sample plot features as during pre-inventory and with the support of local cartographers.  

5. Data processing at regional management level with support from the inventory database management unit

6. Zonation and identification of forest landscape restoration options
 

Participatory mapping was done by local communities in collaboration with the forestry administration and support by GIZ. It involved a true ‘cantonal’ approach by facilitating joint meetings between communities. They prepared their land use maps with guidance from advisors. This allowed to develop the relevant knowledge base for land use and restoration opportunities at regional scale and showed the importance of ecosystem connectivity in a landscape. Main steps of mapping:

1. Preparation: Analysis & documentation of existing information, local visits to potential restoration sites, meetings with leaders of the prefecture and a launching workshop
2. Awareness raising campaign in all 9 cantons and identification of two local cartographers per village (150 in total)  
3. Training of local cartographers in the development of participatory maps and the use of geoinformation tools including GPS  
4. Participatory mapping with 77 communities including joint identification of problems, mapping, verification and ground truthing of land use units by local experts and cartographers
5. Development of final maps, validation and return of maps to local stakeholders

The protection and sustainable management of forests within the biosphere reserve was accompanied by the active promotion of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and integration of PFM user groups into the trade with wild coffee and honey. The following activities were conducted:

1. Implement Participatory Forest Management in the region with the help of local authorities
2. Record data on activities of NGOs active in the environmental sector in the regions Kafa, Sheka, Bench Maji, Yayu. Identify possible partners for the upscaling of the coffee & honey value chain
3. Establish cooperation with Biosphere reserve authorities to strengthen PFM support within BR boundaries
4. Assess the existing PFM user groups, analysing and recording their potential to supply wild coffee and honey and their administrative structures.
5. Select existing best performing PFM user groups in wild coffee collection and honey processing.

The conservation aspect through the PFM aims at the sustainable use of the natural resource base and contributes as such to the preservation of biodiversity in one of the 34 internationally identified “biodiversity hotspots”.

Honey export value chains have been developed according to the following stepwise approach:

1. Selection of cooperatives
2. Training model farmers in pre-and post-harvesting quality management, organic certification and internal controlling system, traceability system to fulfill EU-quality parameters
3. Provision of food grade and quality improving equipment (packaging & processing equipment, solar lamps, food grade honey bags, presses etc.)
4. Provide technical expertise from Germany to smallholders, their cooperatives and unions in honey processing and fulfilling the export requirements (e.g. honey water content control)
5. Support the unions to acquire an export license, organic certificate and risk management certificate plus other necessary requirements from the Ethiopian government in order to implement the export process
6. Communication to veterinarians and other inspection authorities on EU-level by German partners to allow future import of Ethiopian honey
7. Constantly monitor and guide honey unions, laboratories and authorities during the export procedure
8. Establish a contact to the shipping line by German partners and prepare honey export logistics