The Second Conference on National Parks and Protected Areas of East Asia
Akan National park(Lake Mashu) The IUCN-CNPPA-EA Steering Committee and the Japanese Organizing Committee for the Second Conference on National Parks and Protected Areas of East Asia & the Working Session of IUCN-CNPPA are pleased to invite you to participate in the Second Conference on National Parks and Protected Areas of East Asia & the Working Session of IUCN-CNPPA to be held in Kushiro City, Hokkaido, July 1-5, 1996. The Conference will be held to develop the system of National Parks and Protected Areas of East Asia and to strengthen their management by exchanging information and experiences as well as to encourage international cooperation and collaboration among countries and territories of East Asia. It will feature one plenary and five working sessions, excursions and an open forum, with participants from across Japan as well as from East Asian countries. The main theme of the Conference will be MOBILIZING COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL PARKS AND PROTECTED AREAS IN EAST ASIA. Subthemes include: l ) Conservation of Biodiversity Inventory and Monitoring Conservation Planning (Zoning Systems, Buffer Zones, etc.) Management (Regulations, Maintenance, etc.) Ecological Management Restoration Techniques (Wetland Restoration and Wooden Path Construction, etc.) 2) Local Communities/People Link of NPPAs Conservation to the Needs of Local People Development of Public Support for NPPAs Management (Volunteering, National Trust Movement, etc.) 3) Promotion of Environmental Education and Ecotourism Recreation and Tourism Development Tourism Impacts and Overuse Control Ecotourism Training and Education of Interpreters Designing and Management of Visitor Centers 4) Marine Protected Areas Mountain Protected Areas 5) Regional Networking of National Parks and Protected Areas in East Asia Panel, individual paper and poster proposals are invited. Those who are interested in participating in or attending the conference, please contact: Secretariat: c/o Inter Group Corp., 7-5-17, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107 Japan Tel: +81-3-5570-6157 Fax: +81-3-5570-6150 You may also contact: Motoko Oyadomari, Secretary General, Japanese Organizing Committee: c/o National Parks Association of Japan, Toranomon Denki Bldg., 2- 6- 1 , Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105 Japan Tel: +81-3-3502-0488 Fax: +81-3-3502-1377 Report from the Third Meeting of the Japanese Municipalities Involved with Wetlands Designatcd under the Ramsar ConventionFor three days between October 17 and 19, 1995, 50 representatives from 12 municipalities, one foundation, the Environmental Agency, the Hokkaido government, the Wildbird Society of Japan, the Swan Society of Japan, the local Swan Society and the City of Niigata, which hopes to have its wetland registered as a Ramsar site, participated in a meeting in Hamatombetsu, the northernmost town in Hokkaido.This meeting is held every three years with the main theme of exchanging information on the conservation and protection of wetlands and of finding better ways to coexist with nature. On the first day of the meeting, a supervisors meeting was held for the preliminary adjustment of the meeting schedule. The participants agreed that holding meetings only once every three years was too seldom to understand details of their activities including actual interim progress, so that it would be necessary to hold a supervisors meeting annually. They also agreed that a liaison council must be organized for communication and exchange of information among municipalities and that organization of such a council should be examined in a future supervisors meeting. On the second day of the meeting. the municipalities' meeting was chaired by Mayor Noboru lchikawa of Hamatombetsu. Opinions about conservation and protection of wetlands and how to coexist with nature in each municipality were presented. Some enthusiastic reports extended into the break time. Reports were made on the great efforts to seek ways of protecting wetland and to allow human beings to coexist with nature. Each municipality has expended a large amount on the protection and conservation of wetlands, which itself is very unspectacular work. The work includes the following: Activities to seek coexistence with nature by obtaining the consensus of the citizens on the promotion of measures, based on environmental conservation plans for lakes, as well as consensus on the utilization of land adjacent to wetlands and urban areas; construction of sewage systems and the promotion of countermeasures for livestock feces to prevent contamination of river basins for the conservation of the wetland environment; approaches to bring surrounding land under public ownership; the promotion of the propagation project of feed plants for natural feeding of wildbirds; and the construction of facilities to provide citizens a place to learn about the characteristics of wetlands. A single local municipality can no longer meet the growing needs for the protection and conservation of wetlands. Given this, the powerful financial or technological support of the national government or prefectural governments is vital today. All of the municipalities participating in the wetland meeting strongly wished for financial support from the national government to protect wetlands as assets shared by all the people. Today, because there are strong demands to improve urban infrastructure as well as basic facilities for living, the number of problems are increasing as to whether priority should be given to improvement of our basic facilities for living or the protection and conservation of our natural environment. However, a report was presented in the meeting on positive citizens' activities to protect nature, as there is an increasing cry about global environmental problems. As this example illustrates, it is important to build a consensus of local citizens for the protection of nature. Because of this, each wetland area has been constructing facilities as "hardware" and conducting training and education activities as "software." Kushiro participates in international exchange activities, in which trainees have been accepted as part of international cooperation. Thus, each area contributes efforts to conserve the natural environment. Although each area has its own problems, more positive action, both locally and globally, for coexistence with nature is needed in the face of very difficult problems. On the third day, after the participants visited Lake Kutcharo and other tourist attractions in the town, they parted, promising to meet again in Tomakomai at the 4th meeting with more developed ideas for the conservation of wetlands learned as a result of this meeting. Town of Hamatombetsu 
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