Environment Signs of extinction lurking in tidal flats - Loss of Ipominae (around 2007)
Surveys conducted by the Ministry of the Environment on 157 tidal flats throughout Japan around 2007 highlighted a serious reality facing the Japanese ecosystem. The Ibuminina, a mollusk that had been widely distributed from Tohoku to Kyushu, was not found in the Kanto region and had disappeared from its traditional distribution range. Tidal flats are home to a wide variety of organisms, including crabs, shellfish, and mussels, and are an ecological foundation for water purification. However, they have been rapidly lost due to a combination of land reclamation, port development, dredging, water pollution, and the impact of non-native species since the high economic growth period after World War II. Many of the major tidal flats in Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay, and the Ariake Sea have shrunk and deteriorated, making recovery difficult.
In the early 2000s, a "National Biodiversity Strategy" was formulated, and internationally, the importance of tidal flat conservation was discussed at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, but the ecosystem remained vulnerable on the ground. The disappearance of Ibuminina is a microcosm of this situation, and the disappearance of the distribution of the small mollusk was a case that sounded the alarm bells for environmental policy in Japan as a whole. Although the Ministry of the Environment has indicated that it will continue its research and search for conservation measures, many tidal flats have been irreversibly destroyed, and immediate action is required.
This case showed that small changes in local tidal flats are in fact also linked to the context of international biodiversity conservation. The disappearance of the Ibuminina is a phenomenon that symbolizes the "sustainability crisis" that Japan is facing and poses the question of how to protect natural resources and pass them on to future generations.
No comments:
Post a Comment