Aiport offers Stafish as Wildlife Repellant to Mountain Community; This Could Only Happen in Japan, at leat now

 

An airport  provides starfish to a mountain village to protect tree plantings from wild animals. Sounds bizarre?

A Japanese business news site Jigyo Keikaku introduces an interesting collaboration between a private airport company and an inland mountain community.

• Jigyo Keikaku

• June 24, 2026

Centrair, Chubu International Airport Co., Ltd.

Chubu International Airport Co., Ltd. will begin full-scale implementation in 2026 of a resource recycling project that reuses starfish removed from the waters surrounding the airport as wildlife repellents in reforestation areas in Ono Town, Gifu Prefecture.  As part of environmental conservation efforts in Ise Bay—where Chubu International Airport (Centrair), near Nagoya, operated by the company, is located—the project aims to utilize resources previously left unused in the ocean to address challenges in the mountains, thereby establishing a recycling model that “connects the sea and the mountains.”

Dried and crushed starfish has proven its effectiveness to repel wildlife.

Under the banner of “Protecting the Rich Seas of Ise Bay,” Centrair has been promoting the initiative “Building the Sea by Starting with the Mountains,” which supports forestation in the upper watersheds that sustain the marine environment.  At the reforestation site in Ono Town, planted in 2023, damage to saplings caused by deer, wild boars, and other wildlife had become a problem. Meanwhile, in the waters surrounding the airport, starfish—which feed on bivalves and other marine life—are targeted for removal by fishermen.  After placing dried starfish around the saplings, the initiative confirmed that this method effectively curbed damage caused by deer, wild boars, and palm civets. The project will begin in 2025, and in 2026, it will be implemented on a full-scale basis with the participation of the fishing industry. Moving forward, the project will also explore its application as a measure against bears.

The project is being carried out through a collaboration among three parties. Chubu International Airport Co., Ltd. is leading the afforestation activities and handling the drying and processing of the starfish. The Onizaki Fisheries Cooperative in Aichi Prefecture will procure and donate the starfish and participate in the installation work. Ono Town in Gifu Prefecture will be responsible for installing the starfish in the reforestation areas and measuring their effectiveness. 

This initiative, in which starfish—which were originally targeted for eradication—now hold value in the mountains, serves as an example of finding new uses for underutilized fishery resources. 

A key feature of this project is the collaboration among organizations from different sectors—the airport, the fisheries cooperative, and local governments—to simultaneously address two regional challenges: marine environmental conservation and wildlife damage in the mountains. Masaki Hirano, an executive director at the Onizaki Fisheries Cooperative, highlighted the significance of cooperating in this “cycle where what is a problem in the sea becomes a valuable resource in the mountains.” Akizo Usami, mayor of Ono Town, praised the initiative for balancing resource recycling with the conservation of the local natural environment and expressed his intention to continue the demonstration project with a view to expanding it to protect crops and address bear-related issues.