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Working towards building a sustainable society
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Working towards building a sustainable society

Wed, Aug 23, 2017
Working towards building a sustainable society
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Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP) 2017

2391FECC-0489-4FB9-86BC-86F51B901CE2The opening ceremony of the Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP) organized by the Aeon Environment Foundation took place in the Okuma Auditorium of Waseda University on August 2. Participating students from various universities across Asia came together this year to learn and think about building a sustainable society through various activities such as fieldwork in Miyagi and Chiba prefectures. This is the sixth year ASEP was organized and Waseda University is honored to be the host university for two consecutive years since 2016.

This year’s ASEP revolves around the theme “Biodiversity and Restoration.” A total of 64 students coming from Tsinghua University (China), Korea University (South Korea), Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), University of Malaya (Malaysia), University of Indonesia, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Waseda University participated in this forum.

In the opening ceremony, Motoya Okada, Trustee of Aeon Environment Foundation and President of the Aeon Group, stressed the importance of protecting and solving issues related to our environment by repetitively questioning and asking oneself, as well as working with friends from overseas.

FF80F212-9C79-4A8D-90D5-57CFEEF74307In addition, the president of Waseda University Kaoru Kamata also emphasized the importance of visiting and witnessing places that had been damaged by natural disasters, and giving ear to the victims during the opening ceremony. He also said that when people from various backgrounds came together and exchanged opinions, we would start to realize the environment issues present in our countries, a good opportunity for all of us to compare and think about ways to solve environmental issues.

The fieldwork was mainly conducted in Miyagi prefecture where the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred. Students visited the disaster areas and Tohoku University International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), as well as participated in the tree-planting activities in Watari. It was a good opportunity for the students to learn about the environmental and ecological problems faced by disaster areas, as well as how the people living there deal with regional revitalization and restoration. Additionally, participating students also had the chance to interact with high school students from Kumamoto who experienced the Kumamoto earthquake. By interacting with these high school students who are constantly taking part in activities to convey the harsh experiences they had gone through, it sent out strong message to the university students participating in ASEP.1DA91259-F261-4F18-B051-221CDF63DDBF

Participating students were divided into eight groups with each group having a good mixture of students from diverse backgrounds. On the last day of the ASEP, each group had to give presentation on the theme “Biodiversity and Restoration.” As the environmental challenges faced by each country differs from the others, the program raised awareness among students on how it is impossible to protect the planet earth if people, experts from different fields as well as leaders from each country do not work together to come up with policies and measures to deal with environmental issues.

 


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