The Green Wave is a global diversity campaign to educate children and youth about the diversity which OISCA has participated since 2008.

The Green Wave campaign carried out worldwide on and around May 22th which is designated as the International day for Biological diversity. OISCA also carried out various activities not only domestic but also international, mainly with CFP participating schools.

In Hong Kong, the OISCA Hong Kong Chapter held “building squares of TSUMIKI: Wood blocks”※ on March 21st 2019.

A total of 55 kinder garden children and teachers took part in building squares of TSUMIKI. They made artworks by using 3 kinds of wood blocks. 

At the end, they made a big town by gathering their respective artworks. After that, they watched the Kamishibai (story telling with pictures) which tells the importance of forest. They intently listened to the story narrated by the speaker and learned about the importance of appropriate forest management.

In Hong Kong’s urban area where the population is concentrated, children have no opportunity to spending time with natural environment. Therefore, through this experience, they have been able to know the importance and blessing of forest.

In Japan, we carried out tree planting and silvicultural activity in various places.

In Yamanashi Prefecture, OISCA held a planting event on June 5 which was designated as the “Environment Day” by the United Nations.

Employees of OISCA supporting companies and staff of the Indian Embassy and local elementary school children planted trees on Environment Day in Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji was added to the World Cultural Heritage list in 2013 but a part of forest had lost ecosystem due to insect damage. They mended some nets which protect seedlings from the damage by deer and carried out supplementary planting of broadleaf seedlings in the damage area. These seedlings planted on this day were donated by the Embassy of India to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth. We hope that these seedlings will grow well and Mt. Fuji will show a beautiful appearance to make people delighted.

2020 will marks the end of the UN Decade on Biological Diversity.

OISCA has been tackling the conservation of biodiversity on the whole earth through various projects. As one of the Green Wave Official Partners, OISCA intends to strengthen cooperation with Japanese government agencies and make further contribution in Japan and other countries.

※“Building squares of TSUMIKI: Wood blocks” :  It is a program that communicates clearly the importance of forest to children by using wood blocks made from thinned wood.

SICAS School located in Lahore, Punjab Province, joined Children’s Forest Program (CFP) in 2012. At this school,  an alumnus of OISCA Shikoku Training Center is working as a physical education teacher, and he promoted the participation of the school in CFP. At the school, there were opportunities to study about environmental problems and the functions of trees, but not to learn through actual experiences about how trees grow or how forests develop.

On April 25 when the first CFP activities started, 200 school children participated. The pre-school children sow the seeds of sunflower, while the lower grade children planted in the school ground seedlings of various trees that the other two also former OISCA trainees, had prepared.

Moreover, the school recruits applicants for outdoor camping which is rare in Pakistan. Camping was conducted in the northern region where trees are hardly growing, and we planted trees with the cooperation of the local government.