Presented at IPSI-10 in Ecuador
From March 3rd to 6th, I participated in the 10th International Conference of the SATOYAMA Initiative International Partnership, IPSI-10. In the case presentation session on the afternoon of the 5th, I gave a presentation titled "Experience our 'OECM' certified sites," outlining our initiatives at the flower forest and inviting people to participate in eco-tours.
Finally, I invited them to come to Hokkaido and experience firsthand the unique characteristics of Japanese SATOYAMA culture. I also wanted them to understand that timber production and biodiversity are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. I emphasized that we are continuing monitoring to gather evidence.
There were questions from the audience regarding the relationship with forest certification, but due to the extremely tight schedule, we were unable to engage in further discussion. According to the Ministry of the Environment and IPSI representatives who accompanied us, the feedback was generally positive, with comments such as "It was clearly communicated" and "It was recognized as a clear OECM case study."
At the poster session held in a separate venue, many students from ESPOCH (a national university of technology and science in Riobamba), the venue for the event, came to see our presentation, so we were able to distribute flyers to them as well.
There were about 50 official IPSI members in person and just under 30 participating remotely (this was largely due to the fact that participants from Africa were unable to attend because of the Iran-US war).
Next year, IPSI-11 is scheduled to be held in Yokohama, and four people from the Yokohama City Hall participated. There is a good chance that next year's IPSI participants will visit Tokachi after coming to Yokohama.
In fact, Professor Wu and Assistant Professor Chen from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, whom I visited in December, were very eager to come, and a professor from the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador, also showed great interest.
I've been discussing with Daisuke Kasai, who accompanied us from Japan and also exhibited a poster at the poster session as the person in charge of the study tour to Japan, that it's important to focus on and organize research study tours such as IPSI from next year onward.
Going forward, we will likely be working with the Ministry of the Environment's Biodiversity Strategy Office, the OECM team, and UNU AIS (United Nations University's IPSI team) to make various approaches early on in preparation for next year's Yokohama event.
Professor Tsunawo Watanabe (Secretary-General of IPSI), who has been guiding us through the Docomo grant program, accompanied us and managed IPSI-10 as one of its organizers, and I feel that he has high expectations for these future directions.
Many of the photos in this post were taken by Daisuke Kasai.
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