Biodiversity Preservation at Business Sites

During the flowering season in spring 2020, the Hamura R&D Center was not able to observe and record the growth of the Golden Orchid and Silver Orchid on its grounds, as it had planned to, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in 2021, workplace measures to address the pandemic have become established, and the protection team of employee volunteers has resumed its activities while taking precautions against infection.

As a new effort starting in the 2021 growing season, the protection team carried out artificial pollination and placed nets over the flowers, with a view to increasing the population of the Golden Orchid and Silver Orchid on the grounds. Though the purpose of the netting is to avoid the risk of harm to the propagation of the Golden Orchid by pests such as the Japanagromyza tokunagai (Sasakawa) leaf miner, the goal was also to prevent the impact of the aphids that appear every year. In the 2022 season, based on its reflections on the 2021 season, the protection team switched from using kitchen utensil drainage nets to slightly larger non-woven fabric nets with handmade windows that can be opened and closed using a zipper to make it easier to observe the interior. The team also secured the non-woven fabric to the ground using sheet presser studs for agricultural materials to eliminate the gap between the net and the ground.