Hirabari Destroyed




The people of the Hirabari Environment Protection Association have been working on protecting a small forest in Nagoya and asked Miyazaki Hayao to give them advice on it. Miyazaki replied to them with the following message:

"I'm backing you people of Hirabari Environment Protection Association from the bottom of my heart." - Miyazaki Hayao, Fichi-no-mori chairman

"The age of an ever increasing population is over. The age of city outspread is towards the end too. We are now in an age during which we have to rebuild our country that is moth-eaten and fragmented by overdevelopment. It is an age in which we have to rebuild it for human and natural life forms to live comfortably in. In Tokorozawa and Higashi-Murayama we are working for growing the small forests that remain from development. Though we are far in distance, we are like-minded and we hope you can gather wisdom, power and money, and reach a good result." (July 12 2009)

From GhibliWorld.com

But Hirabari Satoyama Conservatory was not saved.

For some reasons that I do not understand, we have no real power to stop such "development" no matter how we try. And, for some strange reason, media is just not interested. Very difficult for local activists to get heard.

Sunday, June 06, 2010
Save Hirabari Satoyama: How can Nagoya City allow the destruction of this biodiverse treasure while hosting a UN conference on biodiversity?

Monday, May 10, 2010
Where Children Can See Totoro: Hirabari Satoyama And COP10


Thursday, March 04, 2010
Satoyama In Nagoya? Not So Fast, Construction Companies


Facebook? Do use it, if you think it makes a difference, let me know...

This is a YouTube video in which Tomoko Abe is questioning Minister of Environment about the destruction.

国会で阿部知子議員が平針の里山の問題と十六銀行に対して質問

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Cui bono? Who benefits? Follow the money. No surprise.
7:52 pm, February 21, 2011
Martin J Frid said…
The main bank that supports the destruction of Hirabari is called the Juroku (16) Bank, based in Aiichi Prefecture. I would not be surprised if there are others.

Who benefits? Probably noone. At least not in the long run. As Tomoko Abe points out, how about children and our sense of living (kurashi) and the protection of satoyama?
12:36 am, February 24, 2011
Tom O said…
Who benefits? What about all those kind investors and shareholders who only care about profit/dividends thus they can send their children to private schools so that they can in turn work for banks/oil companies/become politicians. A few bits of green, a pond and some insects - its progress!! Please note the words 'tongue' and 'cheek' have very been part of this contribution!
6:34 am, February 24, 2011
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