NAGOYA — Prefectural officials, including governors committed to expanding "satoyama" traditional land conservation efforts throughout Japan and worldwide, met Wednesday in Nagoya to discuss protecting and promoting the concept at the provincial level.
Yet on the same day, Nagoya residents fighting to stop destruction of a local landscapes were getting ready to make an appeal to the Nagoya District Court over a case highlighting the limits of what local governments can actually do to save such areas from developers.
At the governor's meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the COP10 environmental conference, Vice Environment Minister Shoichi Kondo spoke on national efforts to protect and promote satoyama initiatives, noting local governments that have seen a growing loss of biodiversity in the past few decades are becoming more interested in preservation in a traditional sense.