BirdLife Asia Working Toward Creating an International Peace Park

The BirdLife Asia Programme is an organization that seeks to protect bird species and the natural environment through proposing and implementing projects in the region. One of these is the International Peace Park project.

International peace parks are transboundary nature reserves designated to conserve biodiversity, maintain regional peace, and support sustainable economic development. There are 169 peace parks in various nations around the world, including South Africa. Though their number is still increasing, awareness about this type of park is still low in Japan.

The Kuril Islands are located between Hokkaido, northernmost of Japan's four main islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Japan and Russia have a long-standing territorial dispute over four of these islands that has limited border crossings and other exchanges. This has helped prevent disorderly development and preserved these islands' pristine wilderness, such as has been largely lost on nearby Hokkaido. Threats have increased in recent years, however, as financial difficulties have caused Russia to cut back on the number of park rangers, etc.

Under such circumstances, the Bird Life Asia Programme has cooperated with the Kuril Islands Network, an organization working for nature conservation in the Islands, and they have jointly proposed designation of the whole archipelago as an international peace park in order to protect its natural environment. Also, in November 2003, they organized an event in Tokyo, titled 'the Symposium on Parks Across Boundaries'.

The BirdLife Asia Progamme will continue to promote establishment an international network for nature conservation, put forward constructive proposals and pursue their implementation.



Posted: 2004/10/04 12:00:33 PM
Japanese version