Listen to the Voice of the Silent Forest--Tatsuya Niizato and the Guardians of Biodiversity (2002)

Listen to the Voice of the Silent Forest--Tatsuya Niizato and the Guardians of Biodiversity (2002)

In 2002, Japan had just finished ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and was about to take full-scale steps as a nation to combat global warming. The Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society was also enacted, and coexistence with nature, as well as "zero waste" and "resource recycling," were becoming the core of new policies. At that time, however, "biodiversity" was still a vague concept for many people, and the value of nature, which could not be expressed numerically, was being downplayed.

In this context, Tatsuya Niizato, president of Environmental Indicator Organisms, Inc. was quietly but confidently sounding the alarm about nature. What he warned about was the ongoing degradation of the ecosystem caused by logging in the Shirakami Mountains and other areas. Using small insects, mosses, rare plants, and other "voiceless entities" as indicators, he preached that "anthropocentrism cannot save nature.

The destruction of nature is not recognized until it directly threatens human life" - a harsh reality he continued to convey through his research and documentation. In response to the question of economic development or environmental preservation, Niizato paradoxically appeals, "Nature is silent, but if it disappears, humans will be silenced. The "free services" provided by nature, such as the water cycle and climate stability, are supported by biodiversity. He spoke both theoretically and ethically from the viewpoint that civilization will be fundamentally shaken if these foundations are lost.

On the eve of the popularization of the terms "environmental DNA" and "ecosystem services," Niizato attempted to visualize the "invisible value of nature" in the middle ground between science and philosophy. The forest does not speak, yet it notes everything. Those who listen carefully to the silence are the true "guardians. He was the voice of nature standing quietly behind the clamor of policy.