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The Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund

Introduction to Grant Projects

Green Partner Okayama, NPO

Thoughts on marine waste and the river basin environment, from China to Shikoku "Jewels from around the world — polishing the Seto Inland Sea"

Activity grant

Project Description

It is currently estimated there is over 13,000 tons of marine waste accumulated (from drifting ashore, submarines and drifting marine garbage) in the Seto Inland Sea. This affects the underwater environment and landscape and acts as a considerable obstacle to fishing and coastal use. In addition, this is a concern as it negatively impacts fish and aquatic life habitat and the ecosystem. In order to resolve this issue, it is necessary for each entity to communicate necessary information and understand one another, their roles and their actions. This project collaborates with residents of the Seto Inland Sea to create a symposium connecting mountainous areas, coastal areas, fisherman, administration and residents to establish a mechanism for continuous activities to protect the Seto Inland Sea environment across all responsible entities. Fundamentally, NPO's, administrations and fishermen organizations in each prefecture will collaborate and embark on trawl net fishing boats with ordinary citizens to conduct surveys on the collection and separation of marine garbage and ultimately exchange information with one another and conduct meetings. As a culmination of the activities each entity related to the Seto Inland Sea will gather to hold a summit conference.

Fields
Marine resources/foodPreservation of biodiversity and ecosystem
Grant year
FY2010 Activity Grants
Grant term
3 years
October 2010 - September 2013
Grant amount
7,740,000 yen
Activity region
Okayama Prefecutre, Kagawa Prefecture, Hiroshima Prefecture, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Separation of marine waste collected from trawlnets

Overview of the Organization

Rumiko Fujiwara, President
Representative
Rumiko Fujiwara, President
Establishment
1998
Establishment purpose
By working on various environmental issues such as the conservation of the natural environment, preventing destructive activities to the environment, disseminating environmental problems, improving environmental morals and healthy development of young people, we will contribute to environmental improvement and create happiness across the region, in Okayama, Japan and the world as a whole. Our mission is to grasp the environment surrounding the area and the global environment as a whole in order to make comprehensive improvements and ask deep-rooted questions with the aim of contributing to the improvement of social welfare by conducting improvement projects related to the natural environment, social environment, home environment and human environment focusing primarily on Okayama prefecture.
Main areas of activity
Setonaikai National Park (Kinkozan, Kaigarayama, Tenmokuzan, Takashima region)
Staff
1 full-time staff member, 6 part-time staff members, 165 full members
Annual operating budget
450,000 JPY in 2007, 890,000 yen in 2008, 3.78 million yen in 2009
Key activities
  • (1) Flower, planting projects
    · Rhododendron regeneration project
  • (2) Green, cleaning, grass cutting project
    · Setonaikai National Park Tenmokuzan, Kinkozan, Kaigarayama cleaning, Grass cutting and bamboo cutting
    · Green worker (Ministry of Environment)
  • (3) Learning, interaction, PR
    · Underwater garbage awareness project (including garbage from upstream to the seabed)
    · Environment Symposium
    · Observation of seagrass mating
    · Rhododendron seed growing and observation
    · Tideland observation, dragonfly observation and salamandar observation
    · Asahikawa river basin observational survey (history, culture, natural resources)
  • (4) Environmental improvement
    · Illegal disposal monitoring