First of 2 parts
Every year, hundreds of youngsters spend a summer evening hunting along the canals that crisscross the Japanese city of Kanazawa. They are on the lookout for blinking points of light that reveal their target: fireflies.
“It’s like a treasure hunt and it’s really fun!” Genta Sugita, 13, said during the annual firefly count organized by the municipality in July. “It’s so beautiful how fireflies glow as they fly, then stop, then glow again–over and over.”
Youth engagement is central to Kanazawa’s strategy to preserve and restore the city’s natural and cultural heritage, including its historic canals and gardens. Its success has caught the eye of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which has selected it as a model for other municipalities looking to restore their urban ecosystems.
“More and more cities are moving to restore nature to blunt the worst impacts of climate change and make urban living more pleasant,” says Mirey Atallah, chief of the Adaptation and Resilience Branch in UNEP’s Climate Change Division. “Involving young people creates a bond with nature and ensures that these initiatives deliver for both current and future generations.”
The world on August 12 celebrated International Youth Day, which focused on how governments can incorporate the skills and perspectives of young people in the urban planning process.
Kanazawa, a city of some 450,000 people on Japan’s main Honshu island, has more than 150 kilometers of rivers and irrigation canals. It also features more than a dozen heritage-listed parks, including the Kenroku-en landscape garden and the grounds of Kanazawa Castle that date from the 17th century.
According to Yoko Tomita, Program Coordinator for the United Nations University and its Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), many green spaces in Kanazawa were lost to development after the Second World War.
More recently, others, like private gardens, have been abandoned or replaced by parking lots, a reflection of an ageing population and the migration of young families to the suburbs.
The municipality has responded with a raft of initiatives to bring back greenery and revitalize traditional cityscapes. These include work to rehabilitate the canal network, develop clean transportation services and promote sustainable tourism. (To be continued)
UNEP News
