All Generations Welcome at the Foundation for Global Peace & Environment

The Foundation for Global Peace and Environment was established in May 1991 and has been carrying out various projects with the theme of "protecting the global environment and keeping peace," two of the biggest concerns of the 21st century. Their projects are designed to help both adults and children learn about the global environment and peace in the hope of leading them to take actions to protect our "Only One Earth."

The Foundation places great emphasis on projects that target youth, such as the International Children's Conference on the Environment, the United Nations' International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment, a worldwide competition held every year and co-sponsored with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Global Forest Project, which supports worldwide tree-planting activities mainly by children, including a program that started in 2003 to plant up to one million trees in Kenya. The Foundation also develops animation videos, CD-ROMs and other educational materials while promoting the original Japanese version as well as translations into various languages of the well-known environmental comic book Chikyu no Himitsu (The Secret of the Earth). The comic book was created by Miss Aika Tsubota, who died in 1991 at the age of 12 of a sudden illness.

The Foundation is also actively developing a project that focuses on rice farming. The Come-Come Forum for the Global Environment (kome, pronounced "ko-may" in Japanese, means "rice (uncooked)") was planned to encourage participants to think about the global environment and international cooperation through the medium of rice farming. The first workshop was held in 1999 in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, and included participation by foreign diplomats and their families stationed in Japan as well as local citizens and children. The Forum introduced them to the environmental role played by terraced rice fields and how rice and rice farming can potentially contribute to the environment. This annual Forum offers unique opportunities to learn about the Japanese mentality based on rice farming and local traditional culture, through homestays, parties, and rice planting and harvesting experiences.



Posted: 2004/12/15 03:22:07 PM
Japanese version