On the weekend of the International Day for Biological Diversity, the “Biodiversity Symposium in Hokkaido” was co-held by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan and Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture on May 24, 2008. The venue was Hokkaido Prefecture, where the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit 2008 was convened. 258 people participated in the symposium.

The first part was a talk show, entitled “Attractions and Biological Diversity in Hokkaido.” The talk show guests consisted of a researcher, an actress who had played in Hokkaido, and a food journalist.

In the second part, an active panel discussion was conducted. The panelists were a NPO member, a researcher, a food journalist and the Director of the National Park Division from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. It was entitled, “Hokkaido’s attraction and regional development based on biodiversity” and covered a wide range of fields, focused on the following issues. Conservation, utilization and biodiversity in national parks, suburban forests and marshlands in Hokkaido The importance of enhancing slow food and to protect local food culture for food diversity

Phote of the audience

for the programm contents, click here.