B. ABOUT NATIONAL SURVEY ON THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The Environment Agency(*) has been conducting National Survey on the Natural Environment about every five years since 1973(All years are fiscal years), under authority of Article 4 of the Nature Conservation Law.
The survey endeavors to gather information nationwide that will provide the basic data needed to promote and implement policies to protect the environment.

The survey is divided into the broad categories of land areas, marshes and wetlands, and coastal areas and conducted nationwide. Survey results are collected and published as written reports and maps which provide the basic resources for planning and designating national parks as well as for other environmental conservation measures and environmental assessments in various parts of the country.

The 1st survey was made in 1973. Results were made public during the next two years.

Until that time, no such nationally inclusive survey had been made. The original thought motivating the 1st survey was to get a comprehensive yet exact picture, from a scientific point of view, of the state of the natural environment across the country. It was thought that such a survey would provide a basis for determining which natural resources needed to be protected, restored, developed and maintained and would provide a resource for promoting and implementing nationwide environmental conservation policies.

The 1st survey was the inaugural effort to make a basic survey at the national level aimed at conserving the natural environment. Because of the rapid pace of industrial and urban change that was transforming the face of Japan, there was the sense of an urgent need to quickly determine where the natural environments were that required the development of conservation policies.

In the same vein, the 2nd survey was planned and undertaken five years later as a follow-up to the 1st. Its aim was to collect information on a still more inclusive, objective and precise basis. However, the job of gathering and recording data on the living environment and the topography and geology throughout the whole country and the surrounding seas, and then compiling and analyzing the data was a formidable one in view of the short time available. So based on administrative requirements and the logistical requirements of the survey itself, planned survey activity was condensed into 14 categories grouped under the following 5 broad objectives. The survey was taken in 1978 and 1979 and the data gathered was complied, analyzed and published over the next three years.

The 3rd survey basically followed the plan of the 2nd. Along with gaining inclusive and objective information on the natural environment and continuing to widen the survey focus, the 3rd survey aimed to assess the changes that had occurred since the 2nd. The 3rd survey was begun in 1983 and finished four years later, and the data was compiled in 1988. New departures from the 3rd survey included widening the animal distribution survey to include all species in important taxonomic groups, (the Flora & Fauna Distribution Survey "All-species Survey"); recruiting volunteers from the general public to survey the state of the natural environment in areas closely surrounding places of human habitation (Environmental Indicator Species Survey); and to make a survey to develop a framework of scenic topographical features (Natural Landscape Resources Survey).

Like the 3rd survey, the 4th survey, began in 1988, aimed to collect information objectively and inclusively and to evaluate changes since the 3rd survey. The 4th survey began the census of the distribution of great trees and forests (the Big Tree Survey). It also undertook to survey the main courses of major second-class rivers and first-class river tributaries (the River Survey).
Finally, the 4th survey began the monitoring of ecosystems as a whole to try to grasp the influence of natural phenomena and human activity (the Ecosystem Survey). The 4th survey was completed in 1992 and results were compiled over the next two years.

The 5th survey, again like its predecessors, aimed to gather data broadly and assess changes since earlier surveys. The 5th survey made a survey of wetlands. The focus of the Environmental Indicator Species Survey was narrowed to certain species - cicadas, onomomi* and swallows. The river survey returned to the same rivers covered in the 3rd survey -- the main courses of first-class rivers and their three most important tributaries as well as the Urauchi River in Okinawa Prefecture. Beginning in 1994, the flora & fauna distribution survey began as the Species Diversity Survey along with the Ecosystem Survey of Regional Diversity (the Survey of Genetic Diversity was added in 1996). In 1997, a Seacoast Survey, combining surveys of important coastal organisms and sea animals, the "National Survey on the Natural Environment of Coastal Area " was launched.

*Onamomi : This plant's seeds stick to animal fur or human clothes and can be thus dispersed.

The outline of the 6th survey currently underway is as follows.

(1)Vegetation Survey

The vegetation map derived from a vegetation survey constitutes the most fundamental and principal data for identifying the natural environment in Japan, and is crucial in terms of basic data for environmental assessment purposes. Due to the widening gap between the existing vegetation map and vegetation in the real world, a survey was launched in fiscal 1999 to completely revise the existing vegetation map on a scale of 1:50,000, and improve the precision based on a 1:25,000 map featuring the latest, detailed information. By fiscal 2002, the survey was initiated with respect to about 20% of the map of Japan, and the data is currently being compiled.

(2)Species Diversity Survey (Medium- and Large-sized Mammals Survey)

The purpose of this survey is to identify the general distribution of species on a nationwide scale and gather relevant data, focusing primarily on medium- and large-sized mammals, and to acquire basic data for nature conservation measures by comparing the findings with the results of the Animal Distribution Survey, part of the 2nd National Survey on the Natural Environment conducted in 1978. The survey targets red foxes, raccoon-dogs, antelopes, badgers, mongooses, Asiatic black bears (brown bears), sika deer, Japanese monkeys, wild boars and other medium- and large-sized mammals.

(3)Ecosystem Diversity Survey (Neritic Ecosystem Survey)

For the purpose of preserving biodiversity, the underlying ecosystem is crucial. Yet, basic information using ecosystem as a measure is extremely limited, including the functions of ecosystems.

Shallow waters, which comprise a comprehensive ecosystem with tidal flats and seaweed beds at its core, serve as a habitat for diverse organisms. Their crucial role has also been pointed out, in improving water quality and providing breeding grounds for fish. Yet, concrete information on ecosystem-related functions of these coastal areas is extremely limited.

In fiscal 2002, a survey was launched targeting seaweed beds and tidal flats in 500 crucial wetlands selected previously, based on a simple standard survey method set for the purpose of identifying the current status of seaweed beds and tidal flats across the country on a trial basis.

The survey will be conducted in and after fiscal 2003.