World Wetlands Day 2000 in Miyagi 2 February 2000 "Celebrating our Wetlands of International Importance"

Various organisations in the prefecture celebrated the WWD 2000 with various activities as well as using original awareness materials and Ramsar official materials.

"Wetland Schools"

There were held a series of educational classes at some sites of wetlands in Miyagi region around the World Wetlands Day. Some of them were open to public and others by primary and secondary schools in the region. In those classes, it was expected to learn the importance of each wetlands in the field and in the room.

Classes were open at 4 sites of wetlands [organiser(s)]:

Gamou Coast (Sendai city) [by SGA, SSM]

Lake Ohnuma (Sendai city) [by FLO]

Lakes Izunuma and Uchinuma [by Miyagi Prefecture and IUECF]

Lake Kabukurinuma [by SSM]

We translated a WWD 2000 brochure "Celebrating Our Wetlands of International Importance" prepared by Ramsar Bureau into Japanese language for the use in our country and Japanese communities abroad: html version and pdf version (676KB) available.

Wetland Panel Exhibition

The Miyagi Prefectural Government, Miyagi Prefectural Izunuma - Uchinuma Environmental Conservation Foundation and Sendai Science Museum held an exhibition of educational panels on Wetlands in Miyagi region, adding to the Ramsar official poster and brochure (translated into Japanese language).

Sendai Science Museum opened its web page for their WWD2000 activities in Japanese.

They exhibited these panels, in succession until the end of February, i.e.:

January 29 - February 13: Sendai City Science Museum

February 14-18: Entrance Hall in Miyagi Prefecture Office Building

February 19-28: Izunuma and Uchinuma Sanctuary Center, IUECF

"Wetland Counts"

Wide area of rice fields in northern part of Miyagi supports a large numbers of wintering goose populations as their diurnal foraging habitats. INCA and JAWGP held counts of wild geese on these rice fields with participation of the public on February 6th (Sunday), in order to enhance the awareness on the importance of these rice fields for the migratory waterbirds and on its biodiversity. Distribution of habitats used by wild geese was mapped (see map).

List of organisations celebrating World Wetlands Day 2000 in Miyagi, Japan

Miyagi Prefectural Izunuma - Uchinuma Environmental Conservation Foundation (IUECF)

National and Local NGOs

Friends of Lake Ohnuma (FLO)

Izunuma Nature Conservation Association (INCA)

Japanese Association for Wild Geese Protection (JAWGP)

Save Gamou Association (SGA)

Cooperation with: