Background and Objectives of Activity

Lake Kasumigaura is the second largest lake in Japan. The total area is 220 km² whereas the catchment area amounts to 10 times as large as the total area. Lake Kasumigaura in Metropolitan Area has suffered from many problems such as water pollution, decline of fisheries, deforestation and population increase. Due to water resources development projects in response to urbanization and industrialization, individual public programs have not provided fundamental improvement especially with destruction of lakeside vegetation, lack in continuation with the sea, disappearance of immediate water source and declining quality of inflow water. Realization of integrated activities which covers whole basin has been a big issue.
Against the backdrop, cooperative partnership projects which involved schools, researchers, business persons and local governments in the catchment area have established recycling-oriented social system and developed sustainable and citizen-led public projects incorporating environmental education and conservation ecology. Asaza* Project is the original project based on Asian ideas and aims at restoring the nature and culture, and vitalizing local area in the basin area.

* Nymphoides peltata (Gmel.) O. Kuntze

Outline and Impacts of Activity

Asaza Project is “citizen-initiated public works” where citizen groups, fishery cooperatives, forestry cooperatives, enterprises, schools in the catchment area are engaged. More than hundred thousand citizens participate in this project. It aims at realization of Asian nature preservation and environment conservation through relating local communities and traditional techniques and advanced technologies. It gathers attention as the project which attains both local revitalization and nature preservation at the same time.

The project is base on the original strategy, and promotes the activities which cover the broad catchment area. The basis of network is relationship between local communities. There are elementary schools in the core of each local community. The project promotes activities with integration of environmental education.
At the beginning, the project started restoring lakeside vegetation destroyed by concrete bank protection. Elementary school students and general public grow indigenous grasses such as floating-leaved plant “Asaza” and replant them around the lake. In addition, this project provides environmental education with elementary school students through constructing biotopes in around 110 elementary schools.
NPOs suggested to set up wooden breakwater which is a Japanese traditional technique and woods in the drainage area in order to help growth of water grasses. NPOs has played a key role as a coordinator between central government and foresters, and then established the mechanism to promote restoration of both devastating forest and lakeside nature. Wooden breakwater also becomes fish-breeding ground and contributes to the protection of water resources.
Kasumigaura-“Soda” Cooperative was established as a new industry organization in order to obtain woods for breakwater from the coppice forest in the catchment area, and it conducts village forests conservation and biological surveys in broad area. The efforts have brought not only forest conservation but also job creation in the catchment area.
As to the issues on foreign fish species (alien invasive species), Asaza Project implement an original program. The project buys foreign species fish which are captured by fishermen for extermination to make fish meal (manure). And it has made a system in which the fish meal is utilized for organic agriculture in the catchment area, and the agricultural crops are sold in the market as brand-name goods. This program aims for realizing conservation of biodiversity in lakes, improvement of water quality, promotion of aquaculture, and dissemination of agriculture of environmental conservation type at the same time.
Asaza Project challenges big issues, the construction of catchment area management system in Kasumigaura, with original idea. The Project has been realized it through linking advanced technologies in IT firm and space exploitation organizations, integrated study in elementary schools in catchment area, and local communities.
Furthermore, this project implements conservation of water source area, water purification by idle farmland and quality improvement of inflow water through collaboration with enterprises, local governments, and research organizations. NPOs’ efforts to incorporate and organize individual public projects for lakes, rivers, paddy fields and forest have made them more efficient and produced new possibility on them. In order to expand the strategy of this project, Asaza project makes integrated study programs to link Asian schools in themigration route of animals including passage bird.

Traits of Activity (Factors of Success)

Asaza Project has original Asian strategy which is rooted in the region and   different from the Western strategy for nature preservation. The characteristic of the strategy is that Asaza Project does not actually have core organizations while NPOs play a role as a bridge with various actors in the area. By achieving their own objectives through this loose network, various actors in the area are internalizing environmental protection as their objectives. In other words, win-win relationships in which stakeholders benefit from the project have been developed. It is a project that creates the value.
The utilization of existing local network such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry has contributed to the establishment of wide-area network. Asaza Project implements advanced activities with human resource, organizations, resources, and techniques in the region so as to bring out the potential of the region to the maximum. They also lead to create the places where advanced techniques and business models are developed.
Furthermore, Asaza Project sets performance targets on specific wildlife every 10 year of 100 years long-term plan which is called for as a future vision. Without compulsory measures on the restoration of nature and transformation of society, Asaza Project has successfully brought slow and deep reformation to the local society through internalization of environmental protection measures into existing social system.

Relevant Websites

• Asaza Project Website: http://www.kasumigaura.net/asaza/ (Japanese, English, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic)

Reference Information

• Introduction of Awarded Case Studies, Civil Activity Award, 2nd Japan Water Award
• Asaza Project Website

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