Nature stands on a fine balance of air, water, soil, and living organisms, and is essential for our daily lives.
However, in highly urbanized Tokyo, about half of the land is occupied by urban areas, including commercial and residential districts, while natural areas and areas of greenery have shrunk markedly.
To preserve and recover nature, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) is making efforts to preserve greenery, control development, and promote the greening of urban areas based on the Tokyo Metropolitan Nature Conservation Ordinance and the 10-Year Project for Green Tokyo.
In addition, to maintain a healthy ecosystem and biodiversity, TMG is establishing systems to protect the natural habitats of wildlife and to support an ideal relationship between humans and nature in urban areas, mountain districts, and islands.
◎ Wide Variety of Greenery in Tokyo
One feature of the greenery in Tokyo is its diversity. Wellmaintained parks and roadside trees in denselypopulated urban zone and greenery in residential districts are essential for the city life of Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world. Forested areas include natural woodlands, habitats for various kinds of flora and fauna, and manmade forests developed by the forestry industry. Other components of greenery in Tokyo include Satoyama, countryside forests, and agricultural land, which have functioned well in a close relationship with human beings.
◎ The Role of Greenery
Greenery provides a sense of richness and comfort, as well as recreational fields for people. Also, green areas are expected to play an important role in disaster prevention such as stopping the spread of fires, decreasing flood disasters in urban areas, and the formation of evacuation sites. In addition, greenery contributes to the creation of beautiful urban scene and the improvement of the urban environment by moderating the Heat Island Phenomenon. Greenery is also crucial as a foundation for living organisms.
◎ Forests, Yato (valley thresholds), and Satoyama in Crisis
The forested area in Okutama has become increasingly desolate because of insufficient maintenance and negligence caused by the stagnation of the forestry industry.
Satoyama, consisting mainly of the rice paddies and fields in Yato, together with reservoirs, canals, and shrub land, is the habitat of various kinds of living creatures. Recently, however, healthy Satoyama environments are being transformed due to abandoned farm land and the curtilage development.
◎ Decreasing Greenery
The latest green and water coverage ratio* showing the current amount of greenery (estimated value for 2003) is about 24% in the ward area and about 72% in the Tama area.
An analysis of the change in the five years from 1998 shows that the green and water coverage ratio declined about 1% for the ward area and about 2% for the Tama area, meaning that greenery in Tokyo continues to decrease.
The distribution of greenery shows that parks are playing an important factor in terms of their wide green area per location, particularly in the ward area. In contrast, in the Tama area, a signifi cant amount of greenery can be found in farmlands; however, this kind of greenery is decreasing.
In light of the situation that greenery in Tokyo is consistently transforming, TMG has been engaged in new activities to conserve and create greenery so that the greenery of Tokyo be restored, as much as possible.
In order to conserve existing greenery and secure higher quality greenery, TMG will review the green plan system and the development permission system in accordance with the Tokyo Metropolitan Nature Conservation Ordinance. Also, the government is planning a system that encourages voluntary activities by private companies.
Additionally, as a public sector, TMG is fully committed to
the promotion of activities for the active creation of greenery in
all urban spaces including planting grass on the playgrounds
of schools, doubling roadside trees, developing city and seaside
parks, and greening small areas through utilization of
government-owned unused land.
In addition, the Fund for Green Tokyo was developed as
a framework for volunteer activities, such as maintenance of
parks and new cooperative work that will encourage Tokyo
residents, companies, and all other concerned parties to cooperate
for conservation and creation of greenery and to spread
the "green movement" throughout the community. TMG works
to encourage participation and of the Fund for Green Tokyo so
that Tokyo residents and companies will be more conscious of
greenery and more positive toward environment-conscious
activities.
◎ Conservation Area System
To protect and recover valuable natural zones, including trees in hilly areas, wooded areas in Musashino, green areas and springs remaining along cliff, green areas combined with historic sites, and Satoyama and forests in mountainous areas, we have designated 45 conservation zones (approx. 739ha) based on the Tokyo Metropolitan Nature Conservation Ordinance.
Recently, in December 2007, TMG designated the Higashiterakata area in Tama-City, the regional government, as conservation zones in cooperation with Tama-City. This brings the total number of zones to 46 (about 740 ha).
In the conservation zones, volunteer groups are engaged in conservation of green areas with such projects as the Tokyo Greenship Action Program implemented by companies in collaboration with NPOs. The conservation zones are utilized by offering residents of Tokyo opportunities to recognize the value of nature through such activities.
TMG is endeavoring to place guide plates to promote familiarization
of the conservation zones.
◎ Development Regulations
For development larger than a certain scale to be conducted in woodlands or farmlands, permission is required under the Tokyo Metropolitan Nature Conservation Ordinance, which among others requires preservation of a specific amount of green areas. In 2001, landfill projects were added to regulated development activities that require permission.
In addition, in the forestry planning area under the Forest Law, land alterations of 1 hectare or more require permission from the Governor. Leaving a specific amount of woodland and appropriate measures against disasters are also mandatory.
However, based on the fact that greenery in Tokyo is still consistently decreasing, we will conduct further studies on stricter development controls.
◎ Creating Greenery in Cooperation with Volunteers
To encourage voluntary actions to create greenery by the residents of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) registers individuals who wish to participate in volunteer activities concerning greenery and organizations that accept such individuals. This system is called Green Volunteer Registration. TMG also fosters personnel with knowledge and expertise on nature observation and conservation of green area, who are able to instruct and give advice to Tokyo residents on volunteer activities (Green volunteer instructor training seminar).
Zushionoji Historical and Envioromental
Conservation area Tokyo Greenship Action Program
in the text and access
