NAGOYA — The United Nations COP10 conference is focusing on how to reduce biodiversity loss globally. In addition to formal negotiations, there are hundreds of seminars on everything from protecting marine life to accessing genetic resources on land occupied by indigenous people.
The Japanese government, Aichi Prefecture, and the city of Nagoya are hosting dozens of workshops on nature and biodiversity in Japan, and these are getting excellent local media coverage. But the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity is also an opportunity for smaller citizens groups from around Japan to promote local campaigns to stop specific projects they say are destructive to nature or biodiversity.
These issues receive far less media coverage since those promoting them lack the funds to hand out media packets containing glossy brochures and complementary DVDs. Here, then, are some of the domestic issues being raised by NGOs at this international conference: