Wetlands and sustainable agriculture

Coordinator: Professor Isozaki
Email: isozaki@law.meijigakuin.ac.jp

Wetlands perform a lot of valuable functions, including flood control, water supply, water purification, erosion control, sediment trapping, nutrient retention and removal, chemical and organic waste processing, groundwater discharge and recharge, pollution control, fish and wildlife habitat, and fish and wildlife food webs. Thanks to such functions, wetlands are among the most productive systems on the planet, especially for agriculture in general.

Although these services are important to human being, they have often been undervalued relative to converting wetlands to other land uses. Worse than all, wetlands suffer damages caused by a wide range of agricultural pollution, including artificial fertilizer residues, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides and farmyard waste, milk spillage, silage liquor, cattle and pig slurry, as well as drainage and reclamation.

This session expects papers that describe good practices of sustainable agriculture based on wise management of wetland resources, the prior impact assessment and monitoring procedures, necessary supporting measures for desirable management, economic mechanisms and international cooperation.