Honami Takayama (participant)

*Group name

Junior Eco-Club  "Nature Friendly Expedition"

*Country/Region

Nagano Prefecture, Japan

*Type of Group

Community

*Number of total members of your group/project

27 persons

*Number of regular participants in activities

18 to 20 persons

*Characteristic of members

The core members of the group were 3rd graders when they first started the group four years ago. Now we've got some 3rd and 4th grade elementary school children as our new members, and everyone is enjoying their activities. We are currently carrying out a field research on the waterfront in the Prefectural Karasugawa Valley, while doing some activities related to nature as well.

*Theme(s) of your group/project

*Biodiversity, *Forests/Tree Planting, *Nature Conservation, *Wastes and Recycling, *Water Issues

*Missions and activities of your group/project

*Activities involving contact with nature such as learning about the forests, tree thinning, charcoal cooking, cooking, nature craft, conducting surveys on water and water creatures, nature games, and etc.
*Contributing to preserve our environment through grass planting, bulb planting and trash picking in the stations.
*Activities to acquire knowledge of energy saving and recycling by carrying out "super eco-explorations", visiting recycling plants and learning about how to save energy.

*Characteristics of the group/project activities

Our slogan is to take part in activities involving nature, and to sense the blessings of nature using our five senses. We also do trash picking, energy saving, recycling, "super eco-explorations", and so on.

*Most importnat way of thinking of your group/project for environment

 You will surely find many wonderful things in nature. Azumino is a clean and green area with its fresh air and water. We aim to be aware of wastes and recycling issues and matters concerning saving energy, and try to do what we can.

*What kind of group/project do you want to exchange for imformation and experience with?

Groups working on nature conservation, ecosystem of creatures and plants, and recycling.

*Short message for exchange with other group/project

We would like to know how much nature is left in your community, and what kind of activities you are engaged in. Through trash-picking activity in the station, we found out that people tend not to trash garbage in clean places.

*Impression of Children's World Summit for the Environment 2005 Aichi

 I got to know that children around the world are concerned with the environment and are carrying out many activities to save our one and only earth. The Summit taught me the importance of solidarity and cooperation. It was great fun to meet and interact with people from different regions and countries. I was also impressed to learn some new things concerning the environment.

*Others

When being surrounded by nature, you encounter many things that move your heart such as the natural mountain trouts, willow fluffs, and even scenes of chestnut tiger butterflies sipping water. All these wonderful encounters made me to take care of nature even more than before. Now I have begun to save electricity and water, and have also started doing some recycling.