"Winter Eco-Tour 2011" to Celebrate World Wetlands Day
To celebrate World Wetlands Day (February 2 every year), the "Winter Eco-Tour 2011" was carried out for local residents on January 29, 2011. A total of 24 people including five children at kindergarten and elementary school rode on the Steam Locomotive train, and visited "Kushiro-shitsugen Station" in Hosooka in Kushiro Town.
　The party strolled in the alder stand and marshy land around the station guided by environment facilitator Mr. Hisashi Shinsho, who also serves as a KIWC Senior Technical Committee member, and enjoyed nature in the winter, observing such natural phenomena as spring water, plants surviving in winter and animal footprints. Since plants grow thickly and the ground is submerged around this area during the season of greenery, it is accessible only in midwinter when the ground surface freezes. For this reason, not only children but also elderly participants felt like they were on an exploring expedition, walking around a wetland covered with dazzling white snow under the blue sky.
The theme of the 2011 World Wetlands Day was "forests for water and wetlands," and the relationship between forests and wetlands was actually confirmed by the participants with their own eyes, such as water from the forest around the wetland flowing in to moisten the ground, and influent water and earth and sand from around the wetland deeply related to the growth of plants in the wetland. After a lunch break at Hosooka Visitors' Lounge, the participants tried making "Wood postcards" under the guidance of Mr. Hisashi Watanabe (director of the Lounge). That is a Hokkaido shaped board on which you can carve illustrations and messages with a chisel. Each of the participants carved their memories of the tour on their cards, to make it a one-of-akind souvenir.
ecotour Although the tour was walking on the snowy ground on a day on which the temperature drops below 0℃, we received a lot of positive feedback from the participants.

Kushiro Eco-Fair 2010 in Kushiro Children's Museum
This event was held in Kushiro Children's Museum Kodomo Yugakukan on June 5 and 6, 2010, sponsored by Kushiro Eco-Fair Executive Committee. Ms. Sayuri Saito, a Technical Officer of KIWC had a lecture titled "Alien in Kushiro-shitsugen". The lecture introduced the distribution and ecological information of American Mink based on the survey KIWC held in 2009, and explained about the issues of alien species.

Waga-machi Festa 2010
In this event sponsored by Kushiro City, Kushiro Eco-Fair Executive Committee held on September 23, 2010, at Kushiro Tourism and International Relations Center, there were exhibitions at booths by environment conservation groups and volunteer groups, an "Eco-karuta" card game tournament, attractions and various other activities. KIWC also had a booth for "paper plane in the shape of crane/swan" making experience, creatures of Kushiro-shitsugen card games and other exhibitions.

Interactive Fair for Biodiversity in Aichi-Nagoya
cop10 In this event sponsored by Kushiro City, Kushiro Eco-Fair Executive Committee held on September 23, 2010, at Kushiro Tourism and International Relations Center, there were exhibitions at booths by environment conservation groups and volunteer groups, an "Eco-karuta" card game tournament, attractions and various other activities. KIWC also had a booth for "paper plane in the shape of crane/swan" making experience, creatures of Kushiro-shitsugen card games and other exhibitions.

Symposium to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Ramsar Convention
KIWC participated in the "Symposium to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Ramsar Convention (sponsored by Ministry of the Environment)" held on February 2, 2011 at United Nations University in Tokyo. Mr. Yoshihisa Kamiya, Vice Secretary General of KIWC participated in the symposium and introduced our projects for awareness raising for local residents on wetlands. KIWC also exhibited at the "Blessings of Wetlands Exhibition," held in parallel with the symposium, Japanese smelt tsukudani (preserved food boiled in sweetened soy sauce), bottled water of Lake Akan and other blessings of wetlands in the Kushiro region to promote them.

A Lecture and a Panel Exhibition on Kushiro-shitsugen
On March 6, 2011, KIWC Secretary General Mr. Yoshikatsu Kikuchi gave a lecture on "Nature of the Kushiro-shitsugen and the Ramsar Convention" as part of the nature and culture course held by "Tokiwadai Hills," a private nursing home with assisted care in Kushiro City.
At this day's gathering, the lecturer introduced the harm of Kushiro-shitsugen using pictures of the wetland, plants and animals, explained the Ramsar Convention, and thought about the importance of the wetland with the participants. Also in parallel with the lecture, about 20 sheets of panels introducing Kushiro-shitsugen and activities of KIWC were exhibited in the hall for the whole month of March.