Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that Yokohama Rubber (China) Co., Ltd., its holding company in China, had decided to support an environmental protection project carried out by a Chinese environmental NGO, the Beijing SanSheng Environment and Development Research Institute.

The project will benefit Heyuan, an ethnic minority village in the Laojun Mountain Nature Reserve in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. In the Lijiang region, economic development is being activated by tourism, etc., even as deforestation, poaching and so on are threatening the natural ecosystem. The project will offer technical guidance on agroforestry (crop cultivation and agricultural methods without destroying forests) and will support regional development activities such as green tourism (stays in farming villages). The aim is to help establish an economic system in which villagers can earn a living while preserving the natural ecosystem.

In November 2005, Yokohama Rubber (China) Co., Ltd., was established in the city of Shanghai as a holding company to exercise overall control of business operations at related companies in the tire and multiple-business (MB) markets. Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., emphasizes social contribution activities in China and engages in various efforts through Yokohama Rubber (China) Co., Ltd., and its other Chinese subsidiaries. The Yokohama Rubber's Chinese subsidiaries actively promote the Yokohama Forever Forest Project, creating forests at the group companies' production sites to further the co-existence of people and nature. These subsidiaries and their employees also donated money to people and affected areas after the Sichuan Great Earthquake in 2008 and the Qinghai Earthquake in 2010.