Celebrating conservation efforts in Japan Nature Conservation Award 2022

The Nature Conservation Society of Japan announced the winners of the Japan Nature Conservation Award 2022 early this week, which awards the efforts to conserve Japan’s nature and biodiversity.

The annual award, founded in 2014, is given to organizations with outstanding contributions in areas such as biological and ecosystem research, nature conservation practices, and the promotion of environmental education.

Accompanying the growing awareness of SDGs in Japan, especially in biocultural diversity, this eighth award sees a wider range of genres from 101 entries around Japan. Three grand prizes are given, each for three categories, in addition to 2 special awards and 13 additional winners.

The grand prize goes to Shimanto Town Forestry Association and KOKUYO Co. Ltd. from Kochi Prefecture in the Protective Practice Category. Here, Shimanto Town has created a virtuous cycle of forest conservation and local economy. The sustainable forest management has grown from 100 ha in 2006 to 5,425 ha today.

Satoyama Club Kani from Gifu Prefecture receives the grand prize in the Education Promotion Category. Through partnerships with various sectors such as forest kindergarten, university seminar research, and environmental learning courses by the government, they have revived the Wagata Forest. It has been designated as the prefecture’s second environmental conservation model forest.

The third category’s grand prize, Children/Student Category, goes to Kyoto Prefectural Miyazu High School’s Miyazu Amahashi High School Field Exploration Department in Kyoto Prefecture. Centered on the satoumi Tango region, the students seek to teach the relationship between humans and nature through natural assets.

A commemorative symposium will be held on March 13th. There will also be a live stream on youtube (only available on the day itself), no registration is required to watch.