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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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Is preservation for tourists or fowl-- a village torn
- Wildlife protection area designation at a standstill
Four or five times a months they can be seen flying 500 meters in the air above Mukaebayama. Someone is assigned to the task of searching for goshawks for a number of hours four or five times a month. The record of sightings is prepared and sent to the Village once every three months. Daisaburo Suyama (age 65) of Hakuba Village, a member of the Japan Bird Society, is this April entering his third year of activity.
Mukaebayama is about four kilometers south of the previously proposed Olympic biathlon venue site. Goshawk nests were discovered by an environmental impact assessment in the area, which was originally planned to be the cross-country skiing venue. In March 1994 Hakuba Village established a nationally exceptional "Regulations for the Preservation of the Goshawk" under existing endangered wildlife preservation regulations. This set forth a design for a "protected area" at Mukaebayama of about 25 hectares.
 Mr. Suyama looks around the Mukaebayama area where goshwak nests were discovered. He is in his third-year of duty as overseer of goshawk protection measures even though a planned environmental protection area has not yet been fully implemented.
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Suyama was chosen as the first overseer of the protected area. His responsibilities include keeping an eye on remodeling and new construction of buildings, deforestation, and prevention of goshawk capture within the area. But the "protected area" designation has not yet been implemented. There are no legal grounds on which to prohibit such activities.
The environmental impact assessment for the cross-country skiing venue was begun together with that for the biathlon venue in the summer of 1992.
Village authorities one year later in the summer of 1993 announced that it "may be better to move the cross-country venue site." This was due to the fact that the study had brought to light an exceptional natural abundance in the area. A number of species named in the Washington Treaty, which provides for the international protection of wildlife endangered of extinction, along with 11 species named in the Japanese "Seed Preservation Law" were discovered in the area. In June 1993 it was officially announced that Goshawk and Nosuri (another type of buzzard common to Japan) nests had been confirmed. Hachikuma (another type of hawk common to Japan) and Sparrow Hawks had also been seen in the area.
However, it was not easy to find 200 hectares of alternative land nearby for the venue. The Olympic Ski Jump had already been completed within the Village limits. Hoping to run the nordic combined events smoothly, it was difficult to consider about moving the cross-country venue outside of Hakuba. It was then that the Village set forth it's policy to help protect the hawk habitat.
Of the four 5km courses, Mukaebayama's "D" course was first abandoned. Then Farm Road 1, built by the Prefecture specifically for use during the Olympics, had a route change originally from the western slope of Mukaebayama to a place running farther away from the nesting ground. They were determined to establish hawk preservation regulations that would appeal to environmentalist groups and others. The Mukaebayama Protected Area was designed to do just that.
After the regulations were established, explanatory meetings were held for nearby districts. Starting with a premise that the Village would purchase the property in the future, for the time being they presented a plan to lower property taxes for the affected landholders. However, residents were put off by provisions limiting private ownership and future tourism use. The discussion did not move forward. Since then preparational changes have been made inside the local government offices, and operations for the designated protection area have seen little progress.
Higashiyama is an area in Hakuba Village that has been left out of the ski tourism industry. They were strongly hoping to see some sort of activity with the coming of the Olympics. The Village representative in charge of the issue confesses, "When pressed to decide to 'take tourism' or 'take the birds,' there are some reasons why we can't just say on the spot that we'll choose the birds."
Across the nation there is what could be called a "boom" to preserve the goshawk and other types of birds of prey. The habitat around this mountain village on one hand is being quickly lost to development, and on the other, with only a meager legal framework, is becoming a symbol of the environmental protection movement. Since establishing the regulations quite a number of environmental observer groups have come to Hakuba.
In July 1996 three members of the Hanno City assembly in Saitama Prefecture went to see the issue's progress in Hakuba Village. Protection of goshawk nesting grounds in their city had become urgent. They were interested in setting up a protection area, but showed signs of worry from a lack of progress in Hakuba. Kunio Tokita, the leader of the group says, "We didn't really feel like the village administration is determined to move forward with setting up the protection area."
How will Olympic policies eventually be tied together with long-term habitat protection measures? The village seems to be standing paralyzed before its difficulties, that of forming a consensus among residents.
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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun