Tokyo
TIME is running out fast for one of Japan鈥檚 most valuable wetlands,
choked off from tidal waters since a barrier was erected in April as part of a
land reclamation scheme. The scheme has now become an international cause
c茅l猫bre, with experts warning that the wetland ecosystem will die
if the barrier is not removed by the middle of this month.
The barrier has cut off the flow of seawater into a 3550-hectare area of
wetlands, the largest expanse of tidal mudflats in Japan. The region is home to
282 species of birds, crustaceans and fish, including 21 species on Japan鈥檚 own
endangered species list.
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Officials from Japan鈥檚 Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries insist
that the 7-kilometre dyke across Isahaya Bay, near the southern city of
Nagasaki, is necessary for flood prevention. However, critics claim that the
barrier鈥檚 only purpose is to save the careers of senior civil servants.
The scheme was first proposed in the 1950s as a way of reclaiming
badly-needed land for rice farming. But as farmers began to grow more rice and
Japan lifted its ban on rice imports, the government began a policy of reducing
rice production and keeping some fields fallow. Despite this, the ministry
retained the project, changing its purpose from land reclamation to flood
control.
鈥淲e have a system in Japan whereby, once a thing is decided, everyone pushes
forward with it,鈥� says Yukihiro Kominami, a conservation officer with the Wild
Bird Society of Japan. 鈥淏ureaucrats can never be seen to have made mistakes.
They鈥檙e like a train on the tracks, not able to move left or right.鈥�
As the wetland continues to dry out, the ministry is coming under fire from a
barrage of opponents, ranging from former cabinet ministers to a group in the US
called the Alliance to Save Isahaya Bay. The mudskipper, Periophthalmus
pectinirostori, has become the symbol of their cause. The Japanese media
regularly provide mawkish updates on the progress of the amphibious fish as they
struggle over the slowly hardening mud.
Local people are divided over the project. Some believe it will save them
from a repeat of floods which killed 539 people in 1957. Others say the project
is destroying the local environment as well as important fishing grounds.
Opponents of the barrage are bitter that much of the planning was carried out
in secret. Japan is only now considering a law which would require the release
of environmental impact assessments early in the planning stages of such
projects. The government did, in fact, carry out three environmental impact
studies for the Isahaya Bay project, but has never published the results.
However, one study leaked to the media by the Japan Wetlands Network, an
environmental group, concludes that the region could still flood despite the
barrier.
Even if, as seems likely, the Isahaya barrier outlives the mudskippers, the
agriculture ministry faces more opposition as it prepares the next stages of the
land reclamation project. First, it has to replace remaining seawater within the
isolated area with freshwater, a process that will take about two months. Then
it plans to construct a ring-shaped barrier, 17.6 kilometres in circumference,
inside the area. This will hold excess water when the rivers feeding the bay are
swollen with rain.
But experts warn that the rivers that flow into Isahaya Bay are laden with
silt鈥攚hich is what formed the tidal flats in the first place. The lake
will have to be constantly dredged, they say. Environmentalists are urging
officials to have the courage to change their minds about the project. 鈥淲e鈥檙e
not interested in apportioning blame,鈥� says Kominami. 鈥淲e just want to have the
project stopped.鈥�