Will the sharp gaze disappear into the forest--a critical point where the goshawk and development intersect (2000)

Will the sharp gaze disappear into the forest--a critical point where the goshawk and development intersect (2000)

In 2000, an alarm bell was sounded in Japan's natural environment. The population of the goshawk, a bird of prey once called the "king of the satoyama," has plummeted, and reports abound that its habitat is in danger throughout the country. Goshawks are at the top of the food chain, and their decline is a symbol of the distortion of the entire ecosystem.

That year, the Environment Agency (now the Ministry of the Environment) launched a three-year plan to protect the goshawk. The goal was to quantify the extent to which development would affect the nesting and habitat of the goshawk by introducing scientific methods such as nationwide questionnaire surveys and behavior tracking using radio transmitters. In other words, this was a groundbreaking effort to establish practical and scientific conservation guidelines, rather than mere emotionalism.

Behind this effort lies a serious conflict in Japanese society since the 1990s over the balance between development and environmental conservation. After the bursting of the bubble economy, urban development, road construction, golf course development, and other projects were being revitalized in many parts of Japan, but these projects often put pressure on natural habitats. In particular, satoyama and wooded areas on the urban periphery were targeted, and the habitats of birds of prey such as goshawks, buzzards, and owls were gradually lost.

Furthermore, international and domestic trends such as the Red Data Book and the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) had a strong influence on Japan's nature conservation policy during this period. From the perspective of biodiversity conservation, the movement of top predators such as the goshawk was beginning to be emphasized as an "indicator species" to measure the health of the natural environment.

The significance of this effort lay in the fact that it went beyond the simple dichotomy of "development = evil" and "protection = justice," and incorporated the logic of wildlife into specific land use guidelines. The criteria for practical decisions such as how many meters from nesting sites development should be prohibited, and the timing and scale of logging should be determined.

This attempt in 2000 symbolized the shift in Japan's environmental administration from "ideology to system" and "desire to design" through the "natural witness" of the goshawk. It was a testimony of an era in which the destruction of ecosystems has become visible and has entered a phase of legal and technical compromise.