Japan Press Weekly

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2025 June 11 - 17 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Japanese and UK NGOs point to loss of wetland habitats for waterbirds due to construction of Osaka Expo site

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and six Japanese nature conservation organizations on June 10 sent to the Osaka governor and the Osaka City mayor a joint letter which pointed out that a major stopping-off site for an endangered migratory waterfowl species has been lost due to the development of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo site on Yumeshima artificial island in Osaka Bay.

The RSPB is the largest biodiversity conservation organization in Europe with 1.2 million members. The six Japanese organizations include the Nature Conservation Society of Japan (NACS-J), the Wild Bird Society of Japan, and the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan (WWF-Japan).

The British and Japanese NCGs in their joint letter stated that the development of the 2025 expo site has led to a huge loss of wetlands in Yumeshima, an important stopover for the endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Japan.

They called for preserving and managing the remaining wetlands in Yumeshima for waterbirds in compensation for the loss in past decades of Osaka Bay’s wetlands. In addition, they recommended that the Osaka prefectural and city governments promote the restoration and creation of coastal wetlands in Osaka Bay and use these areas as an exemplar of the concept of “nature positive”, a global goal to stop biodiversity loss and restore nature to pre-2020 levels by 2030.