IKAN places high hopes on Biodiversity Basic Act
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- Created on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 10:38
IKAN welcomes the enactment of the Biodiversity Basic Act and believes it is an important and very positive step forward in protecting nature, the basis for the health and welfare of all living creatures, including human beings.
Historically, Japan has not had comprehensive laws and enforcement powers to use in the protection of wild life.
IKAN expects that this new Act will serve as an umbrella law by protecting wild life that is not yet been properly studied, understood or provided with any useful measures for their conservation.
On the other hand, it is unfortunate that this basic law insufficiently deals with the conservation of biodiversity in coastal and sea areas, although this matter was
Appeal To Halt The Use Of LFAS By The US Navy
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- Created on Saturday, 31 January 2004 12:43
We request a moratorium on the use of the Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) by the US Navy near the coast of Japanese archipelago as such use may seriously harm the marine ecology in the area.
Signed:
Background: A US federal court decided, on August 26, 2003, to issue a permanent injunction baning the use of LFAS by the US Navy over 40% of the Pacific Ocean. But this ruling only limited the area where this device can be used, use in other areas is still allowed.
The LFAS was developed during the cold-war period. The sonar wave, called the low frequency active sonar, is emitted from a ship at a very high sound level of 215 decibels. It is used to
From The Network To Establish A Veritable Wildlife Protection Law
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- Created on Saturday, 31 July 1999 12:31
a call for support
One of the few laws concerning wildlife protection, the Law Concerning Wildlife Protection And Hunting was "revised" during the last session of the Diet (Parliament).
This law was originally a hunting law which included clauses concerned with wildlife protection. This law had many flaws as it was; but this "revision", centralizing on the "control" of populations of "specially designated wildlife" was passed with neither sufficient funding nor the personnel necessary to truly monitor the project. ("Specially designated wildlife" are mainly those species designated by local authorities to be "controlled"=killed.) Because local districts will be given full-sway in being able to capture/kill wildlife, this, we feel, lends itself to a very dangerous situation nationwide.
Many NGO groups recognized the danger of this "revision" and worked for a dissolution of the "revision". Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and the "revision" was passed in June, 1999.
Include Marine Mammals In the law for the Protection of birds and mammals and Hunting !
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- Created on Friday, 07 February 2003 10:45
Why Are Marine Mammals Under The Jurisdiction Of Fisheries Agency?
On a chilly day in March 1997, after a little over a month had passed since the capture of five orcas in Taiji in Wakayama prefecture, we, members of Dolphin and Whale Action Network along with Dr. Paul Spong, who was visiting Japan at that time, went to visit the then Environment Agency.
The reason for our visit to the Environment Agency derived from out question as to why it was necessary to capture orcas from the Japanese coastal sea, considering that more than 1,500 individuals in the area had been captured since World War Two mainly to exploit their oil, resulting in the substantial loss of the population or orcas in the area. Moreover, study and survey of the
