Japan Press Weekly

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2009 March 18 - 24 [ENVIRONMENT]

Okinawa legislature likely to cut funding for reclamation that would destroy environment at Awase Tideland

The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly ad hoc budget committee on March 23 approved a bill to delete expenditures for the reclamation project at the Awase Tideland and the road construction project in Okinawa’s northern mountains.

The bill to amend the prefectural government budget was submitted by five opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, to prevent Okinawa’s natural environment from being destroyed by the two development projects.

JCP Okinawa Prefectural Assembly Members’ Group Secretary General Maeda Masaaki took the floor to explain the purpose of the bill to amend the budget to delete expenditure on the reclamation of the Awase Tideland.

Maeda pointed out that the Awase Tideland is listed as one of the 500 most important national wetlands selected by the Ministry of Environment as well as an internationally important wetland that satisfies conditions for being registered to the Ramsar Convention, that the external auditing of the FY 2004 budget called for revision of the project, that the Naha District Court in November 2008 ruled that the project lacks “economic rationality”, and that to date, Okinawa City, which is also responsible for the project, has not come up with a concrete plan for the use of the reclaimed land.

Maeda emphasized, “All construction work should be suspended until the court order is finalized.”

Regarding the budget for the development of a logging road in the northern mountains of Okinawa Prefecture, the Social Democratic Party representative called for that budget allocation to be deleted by pointing out that careless construction work destroys the natural environment and that the projected area is the habitat for 129 rare animals and plants.