Community Strives to Restore Coastal Wetland in Tokyo Bay

The Sanbanze Environmental Citizen Center, a nonprofit non-governmental organization, has been working to restore a coastal wetland known as Sanbanze, in Tokyo Bay. It has made green policy proposals, conducted its own surveys and research, held workshops and provided information, and set up facilities including an information center. Sanbanze is an area of tidal flats and shoals along the coast of Urayasu City, Ichikawa City and Funabashi City in Chiba Prefecture. The organization is acting to restore and preserve the natural wetland environment so that residents can enjoy the benefits of a healthy seacoast.

The NPO's major activities include projects to restore Sanbanze's coastal habitats that used to flourish in the area, such as seagrass beds, areas of concentrated seaweed growth and reedbeds. It has been cultivating and planting eelgrass and reeds in cooperation with residents and academic institutes.

Ichikawa City has entrusted the organization with operation of the Sanbanze Information Center located in front of the Ichikawa-shiohama station on the Keiyo Line of the Japan Railway, which faces the Sanbanze coast. Although visitors are not allowed to walk on the tidal flats, the Center provides hands-on activities such as reed blind making, nori or laver seaweed skimming and salt making, in order to familiarize them with the local ecosystem. It also provides information about its surveys and restoration projects and an observation deck where visitors can freely watch the birds and marine life in the Sanbanze.

The organization aims to provide opportunities for residents and people in the fishery, business, and academic sectors to interact with one another to elicit ideas for revitalizing the region while restoring the marine ecosystem.



Posted: 2005/07/18 10:29:51 PM
Japanese version