The ownership of each forest in the areas including this forest for research was dealt with as a common forest of the community or as a collective property of the residents in the area even after the start of the Meiji period: not as in other areas where a few persons owned a vast forest area, not as in Tosa and Kiso where domain-owned forests in the Edo period were transferred to Imperial Forestry Bureau of Imperial Household Ministry as the Imperial property, nor as national forests supervised by the forest bureau of Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (in Japan).
当研究林をはじめとしたこの地域の山林の所有形態は、明治以降も、他地域のように大規模な山林地主が所有するものでも、土佐や木曽のように江戸時代は藩有林だったものを皇室財産として宮内省帝室林野局に移管したものでも、農商務省(日本)山林局が監督する国有林でもなく、部落共有林として地域住民の共有財産として扱われていた。