A group of 37 first year students and two teachers from Saitama Prefectural Kumagaya High School visited JIRCAS on November 29, 2022 through the "Tsukuba Science Tour” program. This was the third consecutive year that the students from the school visited JIRCAS. As a safety measure against COVID-19, the students were divided into two groups, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

After the lecture introducing the research activities of JIRCAS, Senior Researcher TANAKA Kenzo (Forestry Division) gave a presentation on the diversity of tropical rainforests and the benefits they bring to humanity through research on tropical forest genetic resources, mainly in Southeast Asia. He also touched on the apparent decline in diversity and ecosystem function, and outlined the impact of the resulting rainforest degradation on the global environment and our daily lives.

Although the lecture was given remotely this time, specimen collection from Dr. Tanaka’s laboratory, including one of the world's largest leaf specimen, acorns and samples from tree species unfamiliar in Japan, were displayed in the hall, and students were able to touch and photograph them with great interest as they listened to the explanation via the network. We hope that students will develop an interest in this field in their future studies of science and technology.