While plans to preserve the environment have been penned by all prefectures and designated cities, as well as by more than 200 municipalities, their implementation is being handicapped by a lack of action and manpower, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday.

Carried out by the research arm of the nonprofit Coalition of Local Governments for Environmental Initiatives, the survey found that 80 percent of prefectures and major cities were keeping tabs on the plans' progress and publicizing results, but that only around 60 percent of local municipalities were doing so.

While prefectural plans use numerical objectives to a larger extent, neither has a strong grasp on their position in relation to their goals, as a third of the prefectures and 40 percent of the municipal governments do not know how close they are to meeting them.

"Part of the problem could be the rapid turnover of local officials," said Takahiro Nakaguchi, who presented the results.

The limited numbers of local officials responsible for various environmental plans mean they are often incapable of seeing that they are operating smoothly.

As of March, all prefectures and designated cities and 209 municipal governments had developed basic plans on the environment in response to the Basic Environment Law established in 1993.

The Environment Agency compiles data on the number of local environment plans, but not on their success rate.