The Invisible Landscape of Collapse: Silent Destruction in the Land of the Vanishing Crested Ibis, 2002, Japan.

The Invisible Landscape of Collapse: Silent Destruction in the Land of the Vanishing Crested Ibis, 2002, Japan.

Japan, 2002. In the midst of an economy that had not fully recovered from the collapse of the bubble economy and urban spaces that still retained the legacy of rapid economic growth, "nature" was disappearing from the everyday landscape. In the midst of this situation, people spoke of the alarm bells of "slowly destroying nature.

The destruction of nature in Japan has not been caused by rapid development or natural disasters, but by long-term urbanization, agricultural intensification, and social indifference. Symbolic of this is the extinction of the Japanese crested ibis, which was once widely distributed throughout Japan. Since the last wild specimen was found on Sado Island, attempts to artificially breed the ibis have continued, but the Japanese crested ibis had already ceased to exist.

This was not a sudden incident. Multiple factors such as the use of agricultural chemicals, the development of wetlands, the decline of prey species, and the abandonment of satoyama (woodlands) have over time eroded the ibis's habitat. In other words, the collapse of Japan's ecosystem was proceeding "quietly" and "surely.

In 2002, Japan had enacted the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Oriented Society (enacted in 2000) and the Law for the Promotion of Nature Restoration (enacted in 2002), and on the surface it appeared that environmental awareness was on the rise. In reality, however, the majority of urban dwellers had lost sight of their relationship with nature.

Japanese society at this time was accustomed to the engineering concept that nature should be managed, and there was a tendency to believe that if the landscape was well maintained, the environment was stable. Even if wetlands are covered with concrete and satoyama are neglected, they do not perceive such changes as "destruction. No one noticed the gradual death of nature - this was the essence of "indifference.

This indifference spills over into delays in institutions and policies. The "destruction of the environment" in 2002 was a slow and invisible process, but it was still steadily eroding the roots of society.

The term "quiet destruction" invoked at this time was an attempt to visualize the collapse that was already underway. It was also a question from the last ecosystem, quietly reverberating in the sky where the ibis had disappeared.