Green Earth Festival 2016

About 500 people participated in “Green Earth Festival 2016 in Tokyo co-organized by OISCA

On March 26, OISCA co-organized in Tokyo the “Green Earth Festival 2016” in cooperation with the National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization, the Forest Culture Association, NPO Forests and Environment Network Association, and the Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The event which took place at the Umi-no-Mori (Sea Forest) Tokyo Bay area was held to commemorate the International Day of Forests 2015 designated by the United Nations. About 450 people who participated in the Festival comprised Tokyo-based foreign diplomats including 5 Ambassadors (Croatia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Panama and Thailand), representatives from international organizations, government officials, foreign students studying in Japan, Japanese junior and senior high school students, children and their parents. Also 6 young Japanese beauties who are the holders of the various beauty contests titles joined the celebration.

At the beginning, Mr. Takeshi Sasaki, Chairman of the National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization, delivered an opening speech. It was followed by the introduction of the message from the United Nations.

Following the ceremony, all the participants moved on foot to the tree planting site, a reclaimed land area from the former garbage dumping site of Tokyo, and planted about 1,500 seedlings of various tree species.

After the tree planting activity, the participants moved to the second part of the Festival: Cultural Exchange held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan).

The foreign students and Japanese high school students groups presented songs.

Then, Mr. Satoshi Imai, Director-General, Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries made remarks. Dr. Tetra Yanuariadi read remarks on behalf of Mr. Steven Johnson, Officer-in-Charge, and International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). Representing the diplomatic corps, H.E. Ambassador Cham Ugala Uriat of the Ethiopian Embassy, said “It has been my great pleasure to take part in this noble activity of greening the earth”. Ambassador Cham also expressed the need to learn from Japan`s rich experience in improving the natural environment as manifested in the country`s high percentage of forest cover.

Cultural exchange was conducted among the participants through the games, videos, posters provided by the different participating embassies and mascots.

The Umi-no-Mori area is expected to be one of the venues for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.