Japan is holding biodiversity-related events to mark the International Day of Biodiversity (IDB).

The first is the ‘Biodiversity Local Government Seminar’ on 16 May in Tokyo, organized by ICLEI Japan, in cooperation with the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS OUIK). The seminar welcomed Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity, Nature and Health at the ICLEI Africa and the ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center, as a guest speaker, and brought together local governments from the ICLEI network.

The first session featured a dialogue between Ingrid Coetzee and Togo Uchida, Executive Director of ICLEI Japan, on local governments’ role in the Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations. It was a valuable opportunity to hear various behind-the-scenes stories of treaty negotiations that local government officials are not normally exposed to.

In the second session, leading Japanese cities introduced their biodiversity initiatives. Kobe City, which participated in last year’s CBD-COP16, introduced its efforts in environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, an innovative biological monitoring method to demonstrate achievement of the “30 by 30” target. Nagoya City, the host city of the CBD-COP10 in 2010 and a leader in Japan’s biodiversity policy, presented its collaboration with local stakeholders to promote nature-positive urban development and introduced the Nagoya Nature Positive Partners collaboration platform to encourage the participation of businesses and other stakeholders.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) explained that they are developing the Tokyo Digital Wildlife Inventory, which integrates “citizen scientific data” collected through citizen-participatory biological surveys, “specimen and literature data” based on records of species distribution, and “specialist observation data,” combined with information on timing and location of observations. The City of Yokohama explained its efforts to conserve green spaces through the Yokohama Green Tax and introduced GREEN x EXPO 2027, the international horticultural exposition to be held in 2027.

The seminar was a valuable opportunity for biodiversity officers from various cities to meet and exchange ideas on policy approaches.

Another event is the ‘Nature, Culture, and Community: Rethinking Urban Connections from Kanazawa Symposium’, hosted by UNU-IAS OUIK on May 22 in Kanazawa. Experts from Japan and abroad, representatives of model and pilot cities, will exchange views on the regeneration of urban ecosystems through the participation of residents and the utilization of cultural resources in Kanazawa, which was selected as a model city in UNEP’s ‘Generation Restoration Project’. 

The gathering of urban ecologists at these two events is expected to accelerate efforts to conserve and restore urban ecosystems.