RAMSAR NETWORK JAPAN

DESCRIPTION OF ORGANISATION

It is a network of grassroots wetland NGOs for all the wetlands, formed in 2008, prior to the Ramsar COP10.  It shares issues of wetlands based on each wetland site, nationally and internationally.  It provides policy proposal on wetland management based on the analysis.  It works for the conservation of wetland fauna and flora.  CEPA (Communication, Education, Participation and Awareness raising) activities on the importance of wetlands to children, ordinary people and those in charge of managing wetlands.  All of these activities are to implement the goal of Ramsar for the conservation, restoration and wise use of all wetlands nationally and internationally.

Mission/Vision

Ramsar Network Japan (RNJ) comprises local environmental NGOs and individuals working for wetlands including marshes, rivers, lakes, paddies, reservoirs, sandy coasts, tidal flats, shallow waters, coral reefs, mangrove forests, and others.  Its goal is “to facilitate a nework of NGOs in a link with local grassroots groups, and to implement conservation, restoration and wise use of all wetlands utilising ideas and methods based on Ramsar Convention”.  Toward this goal the network will take all sorts of activities to co-operate with local wetland NGOs nationally and internationally, to provide policy proposal using Ramsar Convention effectively, and to raise awareness of ordinary people, focussing also on primary industries.

Summary of Objectives as described in the Statutes

Purpose

Article 3.  The purpose of this organization is to operate a network concerned with wetlands in cooperation with local grass-roots groups in order to contribute to the protection, restoration and wise use of all wetlands in accordance with concepts and methods based on the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Types of Non-Profit Activity of the Organisation

Article 4.  In order to fulfil the purpose noted above, this organization carries out the following types of non-profit activities; it

1. Promotes social education,
2. Conserves the natural environment,
3. Cooperates on the international level,
4. Provides advice, support and communication services to groups that manage or take part in the activities noted above.

Types of work performed

Article 5
Section 1.  This organization performs the following types of work in the course of its non-profit activities in pursuit of its goal defined in Article 3:

1. Surveys and research
2. Conservation and restoration
3. Education and public awareness
4. International cooperation
5. Networking

Section 2.  This organization also performs the following work:

1.  Sales of donated materials

Section 3.  The work noted in Section 2 is performed insofar as it does not hinder any of the other work types listed in Section 1 above, and any profit gained thereby is used in pursuit of the work types listed in Section 1.

ACHIEVEMENTS

SURVEYS AND RESEARCH

• Based on surveys and workshop in Myanmar in 2008, in Vietnam in 2009, RNJ coordinates surveys on threatened Spoon-billed Sandpiper (CR) in Myanmar from 2011, as a member of the Task Force of the species for Partnership for the East Asian-Australasian Flyway,.
• Questionnaire on status of wetland conservation to local governments and civil society organisations: 04/2010.
• Research on designating procedures of Ramsar Site in UK and Republic of Korea

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

RNJ works in different ways including holding meetings, and providing proposals, statements, requests to governments of various levels.  It has been working to influence negotiations of Ramsar and CBD by releasing position papers, and lobbying for decisions, specifically on Rice Paddies, and on UN Decade on Biodiversity.

• Proposals/Request on the selection of candidate Ramsar Wetlands: 01 and 07/2010 to MoEJ, 01/2011 to MOE and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism; 06/2010 to Chiba Prefecture)
• Statements/Requests on development projects of wetlands in Japan: 05 and 12/2010 on Reclamation Project of Isahaya Bay, 08/2010 on Awase Tidal Flat Landfill Project.
• On rice paddy Resolution/Decision of International Multilateral Agreements: RNJ lobbied in co-operaion with Korean NGOs and the Governments.

Ramsar: lobbied at Asia Regional Meeting in 01/2008 and COP10 in RoK in 10-11/2008. It was adopted as Res. X.31

Working Level Consultation of government and NGOs in Japan on CBD Rice Paddy Decision: 16 consultations since FY 2009 in 07/, 08/ and 12/2009; 01/, 03/, 04/, 05/, 06/, 07/, 09/, 12/2010; 01/, 02/, 07, 08/, 10/2011

CBD Meetings: after SBSTTA in 05/2010, adopted as the last two paragraphs of CBD Decision X/34 at the CBD-COP10 in 10/2010.

EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AWARENESS

CEPA activities has been essential part of RNJ.

• Exhibitions and presentations are major tools for showing the importance of wetlands, and of the word and ideas of “shicchi”, or wetlands, and “seibutu-tayousei”, biodiversity in Japanese, using various opportunities including the COPs: Ramsar COP10 in FY2008, 2 presentations in FY2009, 5 presentation and 2 photo exhibitions aside from workshops and exhibition booth in CBD-COP10.
• Aside from the exhibition RNJ has started an activity linked with Green Wave movement of CBD, in FY2010, Green Wave in Rice Paddies and from FY2011 on, Green Wave in Wetlands.  This activity mobilises local people and organisation in a campaign for the importance of biodiversity in rice paddies or wetlands.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

RNJ was born out of co-operative work with wetland NGOs in the Republic of Korea and the world.

• Through Japan-Korea Wetland Fora (October 2007; April and August 2008; July 2009; March 2010; 09/2011), both groups shared the gaps concerning wetlands in both countries and realised the challenges not only in the two countries but also in Asia and in the world especially in developing countries.
• Establishing a permanent network of grassroots wetland NGOs throughout the world has been a dream of NGOs participating Ramsar COPs since COP6 in 1996.  This common dream came true by a co-operative effort of of NGO Networks for wetlands in Korea and Japan, at the World NGO Conference on Wetlands just before Ramsar COP10 in Korea in October 2008 the World Wetland Network, WWN, was launched.  The network in Japan was the body that gave birth to Ramsar Network Japan. RNJ organised conferences / workshops of World NGOs on wetlands co-operatively with WWN held during CBD-COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010. We have been consequently organising side-events at the International Conferences,