In order to preserve biodiversity, it is important to consider a wide geographical area. It is widely known, for example, that migratory birds fly to Japan from Indochina every year. It has been pointed out that Japan is a part of the Asian region's ecosystem. Hence Japan's cooperation in preserving natural environment of Asia contributes to protecting the ecosystem of a vast geographical region and hence to preserving natural environment in Japan as well.

Conservation International, an international NGO based in the United States, conducts a worldwide survey that helps it to pin-point (on a "hot spot map") the places to which priority should be given in conservation efforts, since over 50% of the terrestrial wildlife on this planet is concentrated on only 2% of the world's land area.

The ISD emphasizes the following as cooperation in biodiversity conservation:

(1) Cooperation via the Indonesian Biodiversity Information Center

The richness of Indonesia's biological diversity rivals that of the Amazon. This center will collect information on the region's biodiversity and build a database and draw programs to protect this diversity of species. Japan's role is to support Indonesia's efforts in this area and to help the center run in an appropriate manner.

The center's future agenda may include third-country training, workshops, and networking of East Asian and other regions' experts.

(2) Parks in Peril

The plan to save endangered nature known as Parks in Peril is being run by a U.S. NGO, The Nature Conservancy, whose aim is to strengthen management of national parks and other areas where nature is undergoing destruction. Through Japan-U.S. cooperation, the Nature Conservancy plans to put 100 million acres of land in Central and South America and the Caribbean under protection by the year 2000, thus protecting part of the richest ecosystems in that area. Japan is supporting this plan actively as part of the Japan-U.S. Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective. In the future, cooperation in this area will be expanded beyond Latin America to Asia.

(3) Coral reef conservation network

Among future schemes under consideration, Japan is studying cooperation toward the establishment of a center for the protection of coral reefs in the Asian-Pacific region. Further in the future, the center would be the core of a network structure for coral reef protection research in the Asian-Pacific region. Japan is already holding training courses in Okinawa via JICA and beginning to train human resources for the region.

Chart 3 Hot Spot Map (Conservation International's 1997 Hot Spot Map)

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