A concrete roadmap to draw our path to achievement

This roadmap outlines Japan’s main actions to achieve the 30by30 target:

• Expanding protected areas and improving the quality of their management,
• Establishing and managing Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs, for further details, see II.),
• Visualizing the importance of biodiversity and the effectiveness of the conservation activities.

In addition, building on the achievement of the 30by30 target, the roadmap describes Nature-based Solutions that can solve various social issues by utilizing a healthy natural environment, including:

• Promoting wildlife protection and control through land management.
• Enhancing carbon storage by forests and seaweed beds.
• Fostering Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) in the face of more devastating damage that can be caused by climate change.

Exploring OECMs – balancing overlapping land uses

We believe it is important for their promotion that OECMs be an easy-to-communicate and flexible mechanism that takes into account Japan’s natural environment and land use.

Areas that qualify for consideration as OECMs can be under the management of private sectors aiming at conserving biodiversity, such as national trust, bird sanctuary and biotope. Other areas where biodiversity has been eventually conserved through various kind of management can also be considered as OECMs. This includes forests for the conservation of water resources owned by companies, Satoyama landscapes (inc. paddy fields), areas where forestry operation is being carried out for their maintenance, green spaces in company-owned and urban areas, forests for research and environmental education, areas for disaster risk reduction, and seagrass beds and tidal flats, among others are applicable to OECMs.

Japan aims to achieve the 30by30 target mainly through the use of the OECMs mechanism. For this reason, MOE -Japan is now preparing a scheme to certify sites where biodiversity conservation is being promoted through private-sector initiatives and to register them as OECMs. MOE -Japan will officially launch the scheme in 2023, with the goal to certify at least 100 sites by the end of 2023. In order to do so, a trial scheme to certify conserved sites is being implemented this year (2022). For the first half the trial, 23 sites have already been certified this past summer and the remaining 33 sites are now under evaluation for the second half.

The criteria for the certification has been created with reference to Annex III of the COP decision 14/8, ‘Scientific and technical advice on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures’ and the relevant IUCN guidelines, ‘Site-level methodology for identifying other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs)’ [IUCN, 2020], as well as advices from expertise at working groups. The criteria is composed of four parts; the first part is the one for boundary and name, the second is for governance and management, the third is the value of biodiversity conservation and the fourth is for the contribution to conservation.

Regarding OECMs in marine areas, it is effective to choose areas, following the scientific consideration process taking into account ‘Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Areas identified by Japan’. In addition, important measures to increase the value of OECMs can be considered, such as developing a brand strategy for marine products from certified OECM areas, and the viewpoint of how activities on land have effect on marine areas. Moreover, in terms of appropriate management and monitoring, it is also effective to interface between the conservation of biodiversity and the use and management of the existing marine areas. In light of those points, the concept of OECMs in marine area is defined as ‘areas where the multifaceted use of – and the conservation of biodiversity can go hand in hand through the implementation of effective management and monitoring with coordination with various entities’. Taking into account this concept, Japan will consider for OECM certification areas where sustainable industrial activities have contributed to the conservation of biodiversity regardless of their objectives.

30by30 is about engaging various people!

To achieve the 30by30 target, it is needed to promote OECMs among all of society, in addition to expanding protected areas. With this in mind, Japan launched the “30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity” to develop an “all Japan” multi-stakeholder platform that includes businesses, local governments and NGOs.

Participants will register their efforts with the Secretariat, efforts to pursue certifying their lands as OECMs and expanding protected areas within their lands for land-owners, and efforts to support the 30×30 target for other members.

Moreover, a trial scheme to certify conserved areas that is being implemented. This trial has received a great deal of cooperation from the Alliance’s participating companies. As a next step, we are planning to add another function to match site owners or managers with those who want to support them in management.

Japan regards the 30by30 target as having the potential to play key role in mainstreaming biodiversity. This goal will be achieved through the engagement of a broad range of stakeholders and by placing emphasis not only on quantitative achievement, but also on developing a process combining the forces of regions, businesses, and each and everyone in the whole nation.

Currently, approximately 20.5% of the land and 13.3% of the sea in Japan is designated as protected areas, such as national parks. In April 2020, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) – Japan, with the help of relevant ministries, established a ‘30by30 roadmap’ to outline necessary actions to achieve the 30by30 target in Japan. To firmly establish this roadmap as Japan’s policy, it will be incorporated it into our upcoming National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP), expected in the spring of 2023.

Read more:

Japan’s 30by30 Roadmap