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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow

Shinano Mainichi

Ideas behind long-term preservation difficult to see

Goshawk nest-building in Hakuba Village

The nesting grounds were in a mountain forest at Kamishiro, within the village limits. This area had originally been planned to be used for the Olympic Biathlon venue. Goshawk nests were found in an environmental assessment of the entire area during the summer of 1993, prompting the venue site change to Nozawa Onsen Village in Shimotakai-gun. These nesting grounds are a symbol of the Nagano Olympics' "Homage to Nature" declaration.

A miniature golf course developed near what was once the proposed Olympic biathlon venue site at Kamishiro, Hakuba Village. It is open both days and evenings.

However, businesspeople from the village have developed a miniature golf course nearby the nesting grounds. It began nighttime operations soon after opening in August 1996. Normally the goshawk nests its eggs beginning in April with the family leaving the nest in summer. In 1996 no nesting hawks were confirmed to have been seen.

"There will be quite an uproar if the public finds out that hawks are not at the nesting grounds." Workers from the public office involved reflect on their state of mind at the time. The fact that goshawk nesting had not been sighted was reported to the Prefectural goverment but not announced publicly.

The nine-hole miniature golf course occupies 2.7 hectares of land. This is a much smaller scale of development when compared with the 130 hectares planned for the biathlon. On top of that the distance of the golf course from the nesting grounds is approximately 300 meters. The Prefectural Government's Environmental Protection Section states that "impact on the goshawk population is minimal." But the Nagano Prefecture Environmental Protection League (Washin Machida, President) in September 1996 objected to the Prefecture allowing development there, saying, "On the one hand, even though Olympic development in the area was abandoned, development for another use was permitted. This is a blatant contradiction. It goes against the spirit of the Nagano Olympics."

Permission to develop the miniature golf course was granted by the village development council in May 1992, before it was concretely known that Olympic development there would present a problem. In May 1993 the Prefecture, Village, and local business groups entered into an environmental protection agreement based on the Prefectural Government's environmental regulations.

The agreement contains an understanding that deforestation and excavation will be kept to a minimum, and that consideration for the area's surroundings would be undertaken regarding nighttime illumination and public address systems. The scale of development was reduced, but at a time before the goshawk nesting ground had been discovered. This was all decided at a time when the main objective was to basically keep out of the way of biathlon venue development. The golf course's development plans were changed in order to not overlap with the planned biathlon course.

After the goshawk nesting ground was discovered, the Prefecture and Village tried to "sound out" how the developers would feel about stopping their plans. But the developers had received landholder's approval for the project in 1990. Their intentions to continue development were firm. Due to the developer's care during construction to keep construction noise and other nuisances to the goshawk habitat to a minimum, the Prefecture allowed development to continue. Shigeharu Tayama, Chief of the Prefecture's Environmental Protection Section says, "It's development on private land. We didn't have strong enough grounds on which to stop an only potentially environmentally damaging project."

In February 1997, while the entire miniature golf course was buried in deep snow, the Prefecture, Village, and developers' "group of three" put together what could be called an exceptional document.

It was dubbed "a document confirming details of the golf course's operation and special measures to protect goshawk habitat." In it were proposals to keep grass cutting and watering noise and duration to a minimum, to provide for three quiet hours daily after sunrise, and use nighttime illumination only as necessary and to keep it pointed away from the nesting grounds. It was designed to guide new operational policy before the start of the nesting season. But this is still only treating the problems symptomatically.

Shinshu University Faculty of Education Professor Hiroshi Nakamura, who specializes in bird life ecology, was commissioned to perform a study in 1996, the year in which no goshawks were seen in the area. Professor Nakamura also believes that "at this point (the miniature golf course) probably has no large impact" but he concedes that the development itself was "very unfortunate."

According to Professor Nakamura, even if some goshawks disappear for some reason or another, other goshawks will nest if the habitat is protected. Rather than relying on the results of the yearly study, he believes it would be better to maintain a goal of long-term environmental preservation.

The first project to be abandoned for reasons of environmental preservation since the Prefecture began performing environmental impact assessments in 1984 was the biathlon venue. It turned into an opportunity to strengthen protection of these birds of prey that sit at the top of the food chain and are a barometer of sorts, measuring how abundant our environment really is. Professor Nakamura would like to make the whole area a model for preservation.

In this stretch of level land at Higashiyama, a major steel manufacturer from Tokyo was planning an 18-hole golf course during Japan's infamous "bubble economy" of the late 1980s. Hakuba Village has its own system of development regulations, but these are not specific and there remain government representatives who assert the need for more development in Higashiyama.

The Winter Olympics is always accompanied by development. Beneath the "environmentally aware Nagano Olympics" banner a number of advanced, detailed measures have been implemented.. But even so there has been concern over "development and preservation," enabling us to see a daily and future problems. Environmental policy doesn't simply stop with these Olympic measures.

The Goshawk The goshawk is a medium size bird of prey found widely throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. It was designated as an endangered species in the "Seed Preservation Act" of 1993. According to the Japan Bird Society they have been sighted in 761 cities, towns, and villages throughout the nation (47 within Nagano Prefecture) and have been confirmed to nest in 182 of them (14 in Nagano). Rather than living in deeper wilderness, they live relatively nearby people, standing at the top of their ecosystem.

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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun