| Japan's Position Paper of ESENA 1998 |
The participants in the 1998 ESENA project gathered from Japan and the U.S. to conduct studies on the ocean's environmental problems. We examined changes to the ocean and coastal ecosystems resulting from industrial activities, as well as other critical environmental problems involving energy and maritime transportation. These problems indicate that the environmental problems of the ocean have multifaceted and diverse characteristics. Ocean environmental problems sometimes impinge upon national rights of jurisdiction requiring international coordination.
As both Japanese and American specialists began to work on various areas of research, it was confirmed that many efforts to deal with these problems were already underway, at many levels. These included both national and local governments as well as NGOs, and international organizations. In addition, we recognized that movements were underway to establish several international regimes promoting the environmental protection of the seas surrounding Japan. Our conclusion, therefore, focused on two points. First, aiming towards the creation of networks binding the various dispersed monitoring initiatives as well as knowledge databases. Second, working out a mechanism through which this network of knowledge would be applied in cases of oil spills and other emergency situations.
The ocean's environmental problems are multi-dimensional. Related dimensions include a. Space; b. Time; c. Characteristics; and d. Evaluation.
The spacial dimensions include the inland areas, coastal areas, the interior maritime areas and the offshore/open sea areas. These dimensions are unquestionably important from the perspective of human activity and public ownership rights. Through dialogue we have come to believe, however, that our perceptions of the ocean environment should have more continuity in an overall ecological sense, for example linking oceanic pollution to land based discharge, diffusion and pollutants. This continuity-based viewpoint towards environmental problems supports our claim for the creation of a more effective network for environmental governance, information, and data compilation as well as dissemination efforts, which are presently being carried out under separate governmental jurisdictions.
The series of events that comprise the issue-cycles of environmental problems --surfacing of the problem, magnification of the problem and a conclusion to the problem -- vary both in time and length. Of the events we examined, those having a relatively short time span were oil spills. An example of events spanning a longer time frame is the process by which chemical substances accumulate ecologically across generations. By implementing time classifications we thought it appropriate to differentiate between short-term and long-term ecological problems associated with ocean environments.
The ocean's environmental problems involve both the natural sciences, such as biology, ecology, oceanography, organic and inorganic chemistry, as well as civil engineering and the social sciences, including economics, law, and political science. A list of the many sectors of research related to oceanic environmental problems would be lengthy varying from the tracing of oil spills involving remote sensing to the study of agro-chemicals which involves toxins as they are released in the air circulating through out our global atmosphere.The length of this list would vary according to the perspective taken.
As a consequence of a year's research, we have thought it best to strongly encourage efforts towards bridging the differences in information available from the fields of natural and social sciences. Furthermore, it was agreed that all relevant information should travel from the researcher to the public at large at an increasingly rapid pace.
To deal with environmental problems equitably, we must designate individual categories, which comprise a greater grouping referred to as, "the environment" while at the same time implementing the appropriate social values. As an example, fishery resources have a market value, however, seaweed beds which fulfill the important role of reproducing those fish resources do not. It was also recently confirmed that the mountain and forest ecology in the upstream areas which eventually adjoin fishing grounds also have a major impact on the overall volume of fish caught. Furthermore, it is important that a comprehensive evaluation of the available geographical and biological resources following natural and human related disasters take place.
Considering the explosive global population growth and the attendant increase in energy consumption, an enhancement of the continued productivity of the ocean's renewable biological resources is clearly vital. In particular, we believe that the effective utilization of the large potential productivity of coastal regions is extremely important.
However, pollution caused by artificial chemical substances is harming the habitat of living organisms in these coastal regions. This includes organic pollution accompanying industrial development and rapid urbanization, which resulted in the frequent occurrence of toxic red tides, a progression in oxygen starvation at lower water levels, and oil pollution caused by tanker accidents, as well as the evolution of "environmental hormones" which have recently attracted much attention.
Further depredating the situation is deep dredging and gravel extraction, the creation of landfills off coastal areas, and the construction of large buildings next to the seacoast is directly leading to a loss in seaweed beds and tidelands that are important as nurturing sites. This has also affected the surrounding environment as is apparent in changes in ocean currents and an increase in the muddiness of water.
Meanwhile, the marked loss of beach areas through erosion along the sandy coastal regions as a result of a decline in the supply sand has become a serious matter. These problems require comprehensive measures to protect and regenerate the ocean environment. To date, efforts in many areas have been initiated with this objective in mind.
The Nakhodka heavy oil spill was the most serious oil spill which the Sea of Japan (East Sea) has ever experienced. It provided several challenges, summarized in the following paragraphs.
Environmental destruction occurred in the coastal areas, resulting in a duplication of these governmental agencies involved. This duplication generated further confusion among local governments responsible for taking concrete action after receiving instructions. Sadly, no studies on residual heavy oil are being conducted to develop comprehensive methods for evaluating the environment--including the long-term environmental impact assessments of residual heavy oil--as a way to formulate measures to deal with future damage caused by heavy oil spills.
A very important factor was that efforts towards oil collection were performed by over 770,000 volunteers. However, administrators lacked field-specific knowledge about collecting heavy oil. As a result, problems still remain in some areas preventing the coastal areas from fully recovering as a result of mistaken instructions.
There exists no stipulation allowing the claiming of monetary payments for environmental damages, affecting not only the environment itself but also tourism due to an inability for an adequate market value evaluation. Furthermore, handling cases involving people who have experienced secondary or tertiary damage has compounded the level of confusion.
Registration for ships that sail on the open seas without stopping in Japan cannot be regulated.
A combined effect resulting from the accident having occurred during the winter season as well as methodological limitations on mechanisms to monitor the direction and impact of the oil slick as it drifted, caused delays the implementation of an effective emergency response system. Also, data used to simulate the oil slick lead to imprecise observations reflecting upon the simulation's level of accuracy. Further complicating this situation is the fact that certain data, acquired from the area, cannot be publicly disclosed due to the institutional constraints.
Forecasting and evaluating the impact of human activity on the ocean environment is still unquestionably fraught with uncertainty. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to create a system that, in addition to monitoring the environmental impact of development, will constantly monitor long-term changes in the ocean environment allowing us to effectively utilize the seas and obtain their resources. It is especially urgent to create methods and implement a unified system to monitor environmental problems affecting organisms and the ecosystem at large where these problems have resulted from an accumulation and aggregation of various environmental factors.
Currently, routine studies concerning the ocean environment surrounding Japan are being conducted under the aegis of the Environmental Agency, the Maritime Safety Agency, and the Meteorological Agency as well as by other bodies. Marine product testing sites and other groups are conducting base line testing primarily to protect the fishing grounds in the offshore coastal areas of each prefecture.
Nevertheless, this mutual linkage is not sufficient. Few offshore surveys are conducted, and there are temporal and spatial problems related to the coverage of those surveys conducted. For example, these surveys primarily cover surface areas, and detailed surveys from the practitioner's level remain extremely limited.
Furthermore, surveys conducted usually concern water quality and ocean bottom research (primarily water quality). The research of ocean organisms and the ecosystem are often localized and insufficient. There are also problems involved in the disclosure of data, the lack of an integrated management scheme and the absence of systems available to the public.
Against this backdrop, the Environmental Agency is conducting a sweeping re-examination of its current ocean environment monitoring system. In November 1997, the Environmental Agency formulated a monitoring network system, which promoted an integrated monitoring mechanism of the pollution conditions in the ocean environment. This concept focuses on monitoring the effect of waste dumping in the deep sea, in particular from land and ships (Environmental Agency Study Group for Surveying the Ocean Environment, 1997). Currently this Agency is in the process of expediting new policies to govern these areas.
Due to serious budgetary restrictions, it will not be easy to realize this immediately. However, there exist many studies aimed at creating policies over a wide range of areas. Also, the use of various observation platforms, including satellites and observation buoys, is widespread. The areas surveyed include the accumulation of ocean floor pollutants, a study of all types of organism concentration processes, and changes in the growth of biotic communities. The creation of appropriate model sea study areas would assist in the formulation of solutions to these problems. Two important tasks to this end will be to classify the status of the ocean environment as well as the situation of the threatening phenomena, also the creation of specific monitoring mechanisms and a system facilitating the future disclosure of relevant information will be pertinent.
Other problem areas include the notion that protecting and managing the ocean environment cannot be considered separately from the issue of land and river basins utilization as they eventually flow into the sea. Yet, Japan's current framework for environmental management lacks integration. The management of forests, grasslands, rivers, seashores, harbors, ports, fishing grounds, and other natural resources areas is under the jurisdiction of various agencies depending the use of these resources. This poses a major obstacle for establishing an environmental monitoring system of the type we previously described.
Recently, coastal fisherman and others have begun a nationwide effort to plant trees at riverbanks for rivers that flow into the sea and fishing grounds. In addition to providing effective environmental protection, these private activities break down the sectionalism which existed in the past. Another effect is one of educating society on the importance of long-term integrated approaches as the foundation of environmental protection and restoration initiatives. Activities on both national local government levels lack drive. Establishing an integrated framework to manage rivers linking land to the sea in a variety of forms is an important task associated with the problem of environmental monitoring.
The Sea of Japan (East Sea) is considered to be a typical "closed sea" area, and as its basin is deep it is easy for polluting substances to accumulate. Furthermore, the sea is threatened by pollutants of all types flowing from the Korean Peninsula, the Russian Far East and China. Consequently, the establishment of an international monitoring system is urgently required. For this purpose, the Sea of Japan (East Sea) could serve as an appropriate case study.
The initial response to the Nakhodka oil spill was based on the assumption that damage to the coastal areas would be limited due to the belief that heavy oil would be carried by ocean currents flowing north. This is an indication of the lack of a proper early warning system intended to provide adequate response mechanisms to accidents. As a result of heavy oil slick simulations carried out by NGOs utilizing oceanographic observation equipment as well as radar and satellite images from governmental agencies, it was made clear that the following tasks remain:
In order to observe the course of ships and the formation of heavy oil clumps ( SAR, the Norway example) Tracking ships that do not enter into Japan's ports, and the use of multiple sensors (SAR, H-F radar).
To be supplemented by drifting simulations, as we consider the limitations of monitoring using optical sensors and SAR.
Comprehensive environmental impact assessments of the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaskan shoreline in 1989 was implemented under the leadership of NOAA and Environment Canada. In contrast to this example, the scale of comprehensive environmental impact studies implemented to study the Nakhodka oil spill were limited due to restrictions placed upon the extent of the supervisory agencies' authority. Thus, the surveys carried out in this case were much smaller in scale as compared to those conducted following the Valdez incident. In the future, it will be absolutely necessary for the appropriate agencies to collect data in similar cases of disaster (according to a 12/20 Cabinet decision responsibility for collecting data on coastal damage was assigned to the Ministry of Transportation).
The guidelines created by the NOAA as a result of the lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez accident have also been implemented by South Korea. Japan should not seek to formulate its own guidelines. The best policy for Japan would be to expand the existing NOAA guidelines, and continue in its cooperate relationship with South Korea and Russia regarding the areas surrounding the Sea of Japan (East Sea Region). It is urged that we learn from the lessons of the Nakhodka accident and in particular concentrate on the following issues:
Seek to establish a liaison network for the Sea of Japan region using the Internet as a tool.
Creating a database of past recovery methods and setting up an effective means of making database information available.
Supporting recovery operations using ecological fragility evaluation maps
Assigning qualified recovery project volunteers as well as providing adequate materials and equipment for clean up projects.
Evaluating the market value of environmental damage.
It is necessary to identify methods, procedures and to come up with a systemic framework which would provide an appropriate forecasting method and an accurate evaluation of the impact of human activities on the ocean environment. In June of 1997, an environmental assessment law was formulated by the Japanese government and is due to be enacted in 1999. Work is underway to develop various guidelines to provide an effective implementation of this law.
Despite these efforts, the indices and standards of judgement for evaluating the ocean's biological environment and ecology have yet to be determined. Furthermore, many areas lack sufficient clarity in terms of citizenry participation and informational disclosure. Also, the creation of a system in itself remains as an urgent priority. For the effective long-term use of the ocean's coastal regions a proper economic evaluation of this environment as well as of its ecology is required. It is also important that this evaluation be taken into consideration when using and administering coastal regions. This is an integral aspect of determining which party is liable for the damage and, thus, responsible for the costs involved in the environmental damage. It is also important to create standards for calculating the cost of environmental damage in cases of environmental destruction.
Exxon was sued $US 2.3 billion in damages for its destruction of the environment in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In this case court awarded damages in the area of $US 300 million. In contrast to this, there were no formal claims made following the Nakhodka oil spill despite the consequent decrease in tourism as well as considerable damage to the ecosystem. As a result of the Valdez accident, research concerning effective and accurate measures for damage assessment involved in assessing the total value lost as a consequence of environmental disasters have improved dramatically. Recently, in Japan, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used to measure the value of Yakushima. It was thought necessary to establish a basis upon which the cost of environmental damage could be calculated. For this, it is necessary to implement a theory which demonstrates how the environment can be protected and managed as a global commons, while at the same time providing effective and efficient problem solving mechanisms.
A similar problem can be seen in the, "time assessment" analysis process which re-evaluates the public value of dams as well as other government construction projects. This problem is also endemic to the conflict involving the development of the Isahaya Bay, the Fujimae Tidelands as well as the Aichi Exposition Field. Furthermore, these problems are relevant to the mitigation efforts involved in limiting the negative impact of coastal developmental projects and in the cost-benefit analysis of oil spills.