Area characterisation:
Terrestrial
Objective:
Insure traditional burns to keep grasslands
Financing:
Private
Potential impacts/benefits:
- Enables 1,000-year traditional grassland burning practice
- Protects 600 rare plant and insect species including endangered butterflies
- Grasslands absorb 1.7x more CO₂ than all local households emit
- Supports water conservation and landscape-based tourism
Actions:
Covers fire-spread liability for the traditional noyaki burning of the Aso grasslands, enabling the practice to continue and sustaining grassland biodiversity, carbon sequestration and grazing.
Organisations:
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MS&AD Insurance Group)
Contacts:
Case study referred by UNEP FI. For more information, please contact: info@naturance.eu.
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MS&AD Group) provides insurance coverage for the risk of fire spreading during noyaki: the traditional prescribed burning of the Aso grasslands in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Noyaki has been practised for > 1,000 years across approximately 22,000 hectares of grassland within the Aso caldera, preventing forest succession and maintaining a unique semi-natural grassland ecosystem that supports around 600 rare plant and insect species, including endangered butterflies and beetles. The practice had been suspended in some areas due to concerns about fire-spread liability. MS&AD's insurance coverage has enabled the continuation/resumption of noyaki, supporting the preservation of grassland biodiversity, carbon sequestration (the grasslands absorb 1.7x more CO₂ than all Aso households emit), water resource conservation, livestock grazing and landscape-based tourism. The product forms part of MS&AD's broader Green Resilience strategy leveraging nature-based solutions through insurance.
Sustainable Development Goals:
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15. Life on land
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13. Climate action