【Seminar】GLP Sapporo Nodal Office Seminar Report"Sustainability of environment and human system
Date & Time: 2012/4/16 13:30-15:30 Place: Meeting room 1F, General Office of Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University (Kita-ku, Kita 11 Nishi 10)
Programme:
● Recovery of the Ainu peoples' rights and development of sustainable
society. Activities based on ESD in Monbetsu, Hokkaido. Masahiro Koizumi (NPO Sapporo Freedom School "Yu" )
● Discovery of values and reconstruction project 2011 in Yubari, Hokkaido. Kaori Takiguchi (NPO Sapporo Freedom School "Yu" )
Global environment are largely modified by human activities. As a result, various services provided by the nature have reduced, which in turn affect our lives and ecosystems. What kinds of research or approaches are needed to develop sustainable human-environmental system? How researches can be relevant to the issues facing society? To answer these questions, we will invite speakers working with sustainability in various areas.
Two speakers of Sapporo Freedom School "Yu" presented their experiences working with local peoples to develop sustainable communities in Monbetsu and Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan. Nine people attended the seminar.
Masahiro Koizumi introduced Sapporo Freedom School "Yu", Education for Sustainable Development（ESD, and history of the recovery of the Ainu people' rights as the indigenous people in Hokkaido.
He suggested that the issue of Ainu indigenous rights recovery gives us clue to re-evaluate modern nations and to build sustainable future. Next, he introduced "Mo-pet Sanctuary Network". This network aims to develop sustainable society through recovery of Ainu people's rights in Monbetsu, Hokkaido.
Its activities are advocacy for the recovery the Ainu fishing rights in Mobetsu river and Ainu traditional whaling in the ocean, and opposition to industrial waste dumping site which has been constructed in a watershed of Mo-pet river. They are also surveying environments of the river.
Issues that became apparent through these activities are importance of creating good relationship between different stakeholders and that their activities should result in a livelihood or job creating. Revealing the local Ainu history and share it within local community, bridging a gap between academism, local knowledge, and indigenous knowledge or the Ainu right recovery movement are also important.
Setting up the governance and policies for ecosystem management based on the recovery of the indigenous rights is the issue to tackle.
For this presentation, participants suggested that history of protest to the waste dumping site should be recorded so that this protest movement can be a lesson for future, that resource usage of Ainu people may be estimated from excavated articles at remains, and that research results should be disseminated to the society.
Kaori Takiguchi reported the activities to discover the values and to reconstruct Yubari, Hokkaido.
Yubari city developed as a miner town and had its population of 120,000 at the highest. In 1990 the last mines had been closed, the city went bankrupt in 2007 after the bubble economy burst, and it became a financial restructuring organization. Today Yubari has become a small town with 10,000 inhabitants and is aging.
She introduced sequence lectures, field trips, seminars and workshops, and photo exhibition inviting people working for the reconstruction of Yubari with various activities in such as history, culture, and the nature area.
She pointed that the history of Yubari is a history of local community affected by the national energy policy and economic situation. The responsibility lies with the National and Hokkaido government, banks, companies, and mass media as well, and that Fukushima shares these situations with Yubari and it was serious problem of Japanese society.
She also introduced the discovery of its value and the possibility of reconstruction of Yubari city using historical heritage.
Participants introduced the research project aiming to develop agricultural system based on natural energy. A student born in Yubari city suggested that education for children are important, and that we should think Yubari as a problem for ourselves.
