A fish and dugong greet Japanese delegates as they cross a bridge on the route to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan. The summit venue is in the background.
Hello! I am Daisuke from Greenpeace Japan. In this CBD-COP10 meeting, I coordinate some activities of the global team here, including the cloud projection a few nights ago.
Just today, some of Greenpeace Japan’s oceans campaign’s friends came to the Congress Center in Nagoya to meet delegates. Finny (our oceans campaign’s mascot here in Japan, which is short for his full name: FiniSH) and a dugong come to tell the politicians here at CBD-COP10 to protect our planet as they cross the bridge to the conference center.
The dugongs are in major crisis, it is said there are only about a dozen left in Japan. They live in Okinawa, in the Henoko bay area, the northern-most dugong habitat in the world. Due to fishing activities there, the dugong is in danger of disappearing from Japan.
As you may know, there is a proposal to relocate a U.S. military bases to Henoko, and the construction plans were completed without a full and fair environmental impact assessment. The construction may wipe out the dugong, as well as the colorful sea grass and seaweed beds that are its main food sources.
Greenpeace is campaigning to establish a Marine Reserve in the Okinawa area and is appealing to the Japanese and other delegations throughout the meeting to save ocean life by creating a global network of marine reserves.
Japan has a beautiful and rich natural environment. l and other Greenpeace staff from around the world are here to get governments to protect the natural environment and stop the crisis of biodiversity loss. One way to do this is for governments to implement Greenpeace's Emergency Oceans Rescue Plan.
Greenpeace’s “cloud Projection” took place on the second day of CBD-COP10 was the first time Greenpeace Japan had done such an activity. The wind was constantly shifting, so we had to change the location of the ten cloud-making machines several times. In the end, the wind changed course and we were able to successfully project our messages on the artificial cloud. With the Nagoya Castle in the background, we showed animations that said "More and more marine reserve!!" "Marine Reserve NOW!" in Japanese and others in English as well. The CBD delegates and members of the public who came to the site were greeted by Greenpeace Japan staff and many signed our petition demanding more areas of our oceans be protected as marine reserves- off-limits to fishing and other industrial activities.
Many people were fascinated by the cloud projection, especially as we were setting up. Many people were surprised that the smoke did not smell like smoke- since it was made using water.
Join me and my colleagues in demanding more marine reserves here in order to rescue our oceans!
Daisuke is a logistics coordinator in Greenpeace Japan, based in Tokyo.