Think the Earth

Back to Table of Contents What we learned from the lake

The representative of the Asaza Project, Hiroshi Iijima

Kasumigaura is a lake that used to be known for its abundance of fish and a beautiful waterfront. But water pollution and destruction of nature worsened alongside postwar growth, so that by the 1970s, the lake had become polluted so much so that there was an outbreak of blue-green algae. Although the country and research organizations had already spent a few billion yen to resolve the issue, as these efforts didn't seem to be having any tangible effect, things felts as though they had come to an impasse by the 1990s.

As such efforts continued, the representative of the Asaza Project, Mr. Hiroshi Iijima, who has always aspired to "help resolve environmental issues" since he was in junior high school, was trying to find a solution for the lake's pollution. What he realized was that they lacked the "eyes to see the entire river basin." Even though there were measures in place at the various locations, nobody was looking at the lake as a whole. At the same time, he felt the need for citizen-oriented public projects that the people of the region can take part in. So, Mr. Iijima decided to walk along the 250 kilometers shoreline of the lake.

"I wanted to share time with lake so that I could see it in its entirety. I walked about 40 to 50 kilometers a day with students from elementary and junior high schools with a map in hand. Children who walked with me got excited with whatever they saw and discovered many things." Mr. Iijima began calling these small discoveries, in other words, buds of regeneration, "treasure hunting." He realized that he would never be able to see the lake's true nature unless he accepts the lake's time and immerses himself in it to speak to it. He ended up making 4 trips around the lake.

Clusters of floating hearts (Image provided by Asaza Project)

"During my research, I came up along floating hearts. The shores of Kasumigaura have changed its shape due to bank reinforcement work. As a result, the waves became rougher scraping away reed beds and washing away waterweeds from many areas. But this was not the case for areas where floating hearts grew. The waves were weaker in the area around the floating hearts. When I saw this, it occurred to me that the waterfront could be regenerated by making use of floating hearts' ability to weaken waves." The answers to the lake's regeneration were found in the lake. Mr. Iijima founded the Asaza Project in 1995. He began collecting seeds of floating hearts at the lake, nurtured them in another location, and planted the seedlings in various locations around the lake.

Back to Table of Contents Floating hearts pave the way to biodiversit

How do floating hearts help regenerate the waterfront? Floating hearts, which grow in the waterfronts in Japan, can live both on land and in water. The seeds grow underground and sprout along the shorefront. And with the seasonal change in the water level, they begin to grow in water, blossoming in the spring and summer. Especially in summer, they grow countless new leaves through photosynthesis, which requires nitrogen and phosphorus. So they absorb lots of nitrogen and phosphorus, which cause water pollution. Moreover, insects and aquatic birds eat nearly half of the leaves, taking the nitrogen and phosphorus into their bodies. They then return to land as feces or dead bodies, which in turn become nutrients. This is how nitrogen is removed from water, and the total amount removed adds up to approximately half the total volume of such floating hearts.

The real objective, however, is not "to purify water" with floating hearts. It is to help the lake become able to purify water on its own. The true value is found when human beings come to understand the mechanism of nature through these floating hearts, and when the lake's ecosystems becomes enriched, and biodiversity flourishes once again. According to the Asaza Project, during the first decade after planting the floating hearts, such floating hearts and reed grass will take root firmly and aquatic birds such as little grebes or common coots, and dragonflies such as commons skimmers will start to inhabit the lake's ecosystem. In 20 years, the vegetation zone will begin to expand towards the center of the lake and a forest of basket willows will begin to grow along the shores. We will also begin to see a wider variety of birds and insects, and in the summer we will see cuckoos, and whooper swans will come to eat wild rice in the winter. Then in 30 years, we will see floating hearts all over the lake. Vegetation zones will spread even more, and the nationally protected species, Middendorff's bean goose, will come to spend the winter there. The ultimate objective of the project is to recreate a waterfront rich in biodiversity where cranes in 50 years and Japanese crested ibis in 100 years may want to come inhabit.

Brief overview of the Asaza Project's 100-year plan

Back to Table of Contents The keywords are "diversity" and "children playing the starring role"

Asaza Project has developed significantly by learning from biodiversity, respecting each other's diversity and communicating with various stakeholders. It has been 12 years since its establishment in 1995 and more than 130,000 people has been involved so far.

Mr. Iijima says, "Unlike Western countries, which regarded nature and mankind to be on opposing sides and attempted to dominate or control it, Asia and Japan believed in making effective use of diversity and to become one with it. That is why Japan's outlook on nature always involves encouragement." Satoyama is a typical example. Because in this case, people, as a part of nature, periodically thinned trees to allow ample sunlight to fall through the leaves, a forest where various animals such as hawks and owls inhabit has grown. Asaza Project believes this idea of "encouragement that gives way to biodiversity" could be applied to a social system that is in harmony with nature. That is why it has recommended this undertaking to various companies, regions, and governments as a program that promotes "shifting towards encouragement that gives way to biodiversity without destruction or interference."

What we kept in mind then was the "strength of respect or not negating." We have expanded a network involving various stakeholders such as governments, companies, and educational organizations, and in doing so, we have been careful to not negate their ideas or activities. We have been careful to first and foremost respect them. We have also learned from an ecosystem without a centerpiece, and have prized "transforming the wall between one another into a membrane" and reviewing existing ideas and cognition to "create a new style."

What is most important when putting such ideas into practice is to remove stereotypical ideas born from modernization and to have a flexible attitude that enables you to see it differently. Children are usually very good at this. That's why children play starring roles in the Asaza Project. "The combination of children and companies, children and governments, or children and researchers are very creative combinations. Children mumble when they have something to say but are unable to find the words to describe it. They are searching for their way of expressing what they feel and think. The answers they find after their struggle offer new ways of resolving environmental issues." (Mr. Iijima)

3rd and 4th grade students at Kasumigaura Saga elementary school plant floating hearts. They seem to be having fun! （Image provided by the Asaza Project）

Back to Table of Contents A scene from the class
- Children get excited playing the starring role!

So what do the children actually do? On July 18th, 2007, I went to see the integrated study class for 4th grade students at Tsuchiura Daini elementary school located in Tsuchiura city, Ibaraki. One of the big pillars of the Asaza Project is to design a project with schools and to implement it in classes. So far, this has been conducted at 170 elementary schools in Ibaraki and other elementary schools in Akita and Tokyo prefecture. At the biotope of the elementary school that surrounds Kasumigaura, children have thought about where killifishes and frogs should live, designed it, and have studied how diverse an ecosystem they could attain. Then they provide the waterweeds grown at biotope to Kasumigaura. That is how they contribute substantially to the Asaza Project.

This time, a class took place at the biotope and the science lab. "Today, you will learn to converse with living organisms. Here, you can find creatures from Kasumigaura and dragonflies that have traveled across the sea from as far as Taiwan and Okinawa." After this explanation the children were divided into groups of five or so and began searching for these creatures using a net.

Children carefully listen to Mr. Iijima's explanation. "The biotope is connected to the whole entire planet. I want to you feel that."

Children were so exited, screaming "A grasshopper! I can catch it with my bare hands." "I caught a small white butterfly!" "I have a dragonfly larva." "Here is a killifish!" "I found a water strider!"

Although some children wear cotton work gloves to catch the insects, no one cried in fear. One after another they discover small insects, fishes, and flying insects.

They put the organisms they discovered into a container and carefully took it to the science lab.

Next, they observed and drew their finds. "Every one, observe carefully before you start drawing. You will notice a lot of things. The body structures of these organisms are related to how and where it lives. You can make as many mistakes as you like. The person that makes the most mistakes and as a result discoveries will learn the most today" said Mr. Iijima, and every child began to draw.

After 10 minutes there was a lecture regarding the body structure of insects using the black board.

They learned the body structures of various dragonfly larvae (such as larvae of a commons skimmer, red dragonfly, damselfly, etc.) and a water scorpion.

The important point is that "the change in the way and where they live changes the body structure." The class was concluded with the words, "This small biotope is connected to the world. Please find an opportunity during the summer vacation to research, with a map in had, about the paths of living organisms."

Lastly, there was time for questions and answers. A student with a glowing face asked "Will you come back next semester?" When Mr. Iijima replied, "Yes. But only if every one of you research about the paths of living organisms and think of a way to fill the city of Tsuchiura with many organisms," the students responded with a lively voice, "We had so much fun! Please come back again."

This class was a part of the integrated study about "better living and environment," which responded to children's wish to learn more about Tsuchiura, and especially about Kasumigaura." The teacher, Ms. Ozawa said, "I think this kind of experience was a first for many children, so I am glad to hear that children really would like for him to come back." The plans for the second semester is to draft a proposal on how to make Tsuchiura's environment better based on what the children discover during their summer vacation about the paths of living organisms.

Back to Table of Contents To create a new style for the new age
- expanding the Asaza Project

According to Mr. Iijima, such class changes children's point of view about space. After the class, they will begin seeing the waterfront and the city differently, thinking about a migration of living organisms even in the inner city. They become able to draw the paths the organisms take, and to look at the scattered green land in any city as a whole. Rather than thinking, "the city is bad because there are no living organisms," they begin to think, "there is something here, so let's not give up."

Such integrated study at schools has, in the past, actually lead to proposals to the mayor and consequently environmental improvement. At Yatsuda in Ibaraki prefecture, 4th grade students conducted a detailed research on Yatsuda and came up with a plan to regenerate the city. Then they invited Mayor Ushiku to their school, and presented their idea. The proposal was accepted and the Yatsuda regeneration project progressed with the children playing a central role. The documents submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, were drafted by the children with the help of someone from the ministry who came to the school to give them direction. The children also conducted the local explanatory meeting. According to Mr. Iijima, "the children who are now in 6th grade, who have become aware of their own diversity by learning about biodiversity, are able to have discussions at a higher level than even the adults, resolve many issues, and put them in practice."

It is impossible to write down all the activities that the Asaza Project, which learns from biodiversity and puts what they have learned into practice, has undertaken because it has covered so much ground.
But to mention a few, children collected information about the local environment in collaboration with NEC, they have also taken part in activities to observe the living environment of frogs and the circulation of water using satellite in cooperation with a space development research facility, and the fishmeal production business (making fish powder from foreign fish species, using it for agriculture, and selling the produce in supermarkets as "vegetables that make lakes happy"). Moreover, they have provided brushwood to construct breakwaters using traditional construction methods, which will serve to protect floating hearts from being washed away by waves, and volunteered as a one-day lumberjack to thin the forest at the water source. All of this started by talking to different people with different posts, and by respecting each other. In conclusion, Mr. Iijima said the following.

"There is no point in forcing my way of thinking on someone and creating a successor. I would rather look at myself as a 'place' that creates various movements and activities and bequeath its function. I want to continue to establish relationships with various many people, to create many business models here at Kasumigaura that would help bring back Japanese crested ibis in 100 years, and to create a new style for the new age. I hope to revive Kasumigaura by engaging with numerous fields, by helping various local industries take root, and by developing networks."

Asaza Project consists of citizens, schools, researchers, and local industries such as forestry, agriculture, and fishery. The project not only cleans the waters of Kasumigaura but it benefits all these stakeholders.

Back to Table of Contents Conclusion - hopes for the future

Japanese people once functioned as part of nature. The Asaza Project is an old but new method because it reexamines this old mindset, and through floating hearts, attempts to become a part of the biodiversity. Kasumigaura and the planet will become a better place when tens of thousands of children, who have become aware of biodiversity and have acquired the strength to respect and not negate various ideas and activities, grow up with what they have learned from the project.

What made me have hope for the future the most was the smiling faces of children, Mr. Iijima, and the staff of the Asaza Project. Mr. Iijima says while smiling mischievously, "there is nothing more exciting and creative than the environment. My motto is to 'enjoy what you do.' We don't do things seriously unless we are excited about what we do, do we?" As he said this, I saw that every one there had great smiles on their faces. We should practice eco everyday while having fun, while respecting biodiversity. I realized once again that this is the key to successfully undertake environmental activities over a long period of time.

Miho Akutsu - Brief Biography
Representative of Slow Media Works. Graduated from Meiji Gakuin University. While studying at the university, she went to New Zealand to research about the Maori aborigine. While currently working at the PR division of a company, she also represents Slow Media Works, and undertakes media activities such as editing and writing articles for eco magazines and websites.
http://www.slowmediaworks.net