Controlled Burning Insurance for Aso Grasslands (Noyaki)

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 over 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 for fire-spread risk has enabled the continuation and resumption of noyaki, thereby supporting the preservation of grassland biodiversity, carbon sequestration (the grasslands absorb 1.7 times 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.