Environmental Impact Assessment
Importance of public participation : Japanese experience
Fujimae Tidal Flat (left)
For an effective Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) public participation or public consultation is very important. In our country most of the people are still not fully aware of the consequences of bad environment. So their voice remains mute when any project begins in their locality. They only think that it would help them in developing the area and to create employment opportunity. This kind of unawareness makes it easy for the proponent to start a project in the area without considering the environmental issues. On the other hand if in some cases Public Participation (PP) is involved it does not fully serve the purpose because proper participants (significantly affected) are not properly identified and included, only the positive impacts are discussed and briefing on the project and environmental impacts are hard to understand. Very recently I had the opportunity of visiting a Japanese site called Fujimae Tidal Flat which is near the Nagoya city. Nagoya is the fourth largest city in Japan under Aichi Prefecture (state). Fujimae Tidal Flat is internationally known for its diverse ecology and biodiversity. This is a stopover site for migratory birds that fly through East Asian Flyway from Siberia to Australia-New Zealand. There are about 500 important wetlands in Japan (2001). Types of wetlands are moorlands, rivers, lakes and ponds, coastlines, seaweed beds, tidal flats, mangroves, coral reefs, etc. But Fujimae tidal flat which is about 46 hectares in area is the Japan's largest shorebird site. In 2002 this was registered as a Ramsar wetland site of international importance that attracts numerous migratory birds. In the course of their long journey, the birds use this wetland as stopover site to rest and regain strength. In 1981, due to increased volume of waste in Nagoya, the city government announced a plan to use Fujimae Tidal Flat as a waste disposal site (landfill site). Immediately after the announcement of the plan, a citizen campaign was launched to save Fujimae Tidal Flat. This led to growing public awareness about the need to protect the tidal flat. By January 1999, the city Mayor decided to cancel plans and instead issued the “Emergency Announcement for Waste Reduction” in February in an effort to reduce waste. In 2000, the city implemented a programme to sort waste in order to reduce the non-burnable waste designated for landfills. At the same time, rules for sorting waste and resources were adopted by Nagoya in their current form. To establish the landfill site at Fujimae Tidal Flat the city government conducted the EIA but overlooked or did not take into proper consideration some of the important issues which eventually led to cancellation of the project. Rare case in Japan where EIA stops the government project; also the typical case where environmental issues shift from pollution to natural conservation. But how the people succeeded? When the citizens thought they have the right and responsibility to conserve the natural ecosystem and have the responsibility to maintain the site for migratory birds and some other rare aquatic species (especially mud shrimp) they themselves conducted the EIA and pointed out the issues rightly in their report. This is the first example of EIA in Japan conducted by citizens. When the EIA report was placed to the local Mayor he was so convinced that he changed his mind. Finally Fujimae Tidal Flat was protected and conserved by the strong desire of the people of Nagoya, who did not want to bury the tidal flat under their own garbage, and took-out efforts in the city to reduce waste. Consequently, in November 2002 the area was registered as a Ramsar site. Good news for the site is that, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is going to be held in Nagoya city in October 2010. Fujimae Tidal Flat is a unique example which can serve as a global model for the successful protection of the environment against indiscriminate development. On the other hand this is a very good lesson for us how to involve the citizens in the process of environmental management to conserve the sustainable biodiversity for the people as well as for the other natural creatures.
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