Osaka University and the local community co-create biodiversity conservation

FURUYA Hidetaka| Professor, Graduate School of Science
YOSHIOKA Satoshi| Associate Professor, Campus Sustainability Office

Osaka University has three campuses, Toyonaka, Suita and Minoh in the Senri Hills and its natural environment has become a valuable green space remaining in the city over the years since its establishment.

For example, the area on the Toyonaka campus around Mt. Machikane is home to rare plants in Toyonaka City and new species of insects and it is specified as a conservation area.

According to the survey conducted by this project in 2019, the campus has a habitat for Himebotaru (Hotaria parvula), a near-threatened species listed in the Osaka Prefecture Red List 2014 and Nakayama Pond has a habitat for ShimahireYoshinobori (Rhinogobius sp. BF), a near-endangered species listed in both the Ministry of the Environment Red List 2015 and the Osaka Prefecture Red List 2014.

In this project, we will work for biodiversity conservation and education in an integrated manner through creating a base for aware of valuable natural environment with students, faculty and staff and the local community. In order to keep it in terms of financial resources, we also work on corporate CSR activities from the perspective of the SDGs and obtaining subsidies from various organizations. In addition, we will link it to related research in the university.

By establishing a long-term ecosystem for disaster prevention and crime prevention in cooperation with local residents through maintenance for the environmental conservation, we can solve social issues by co-creation between the university and society and the results can be achieved in various ways such as environmental reports in the future.

In 2008 and 2009, "Flowers Blooming on Campus" in Suita and Toyonaka editions (Osaka University Press) were published and introduced various vegetation on the campus. Flowers in the Minoh Campus has only been surveyed, but the survey results are stored in the database of the General Science Museum.

The realization of a low-carbon society, a recycling-oriented society and a society in harmony with nature are the necessary to achieve a sustainable society.

As the activity for conserving biodiversity to sustain a society in harmony with nature, the Sustainable Campus Office has been aware of the importance of nature conservation and biodiversity education on campus and it has been maintained while formulating and operating the “Osaka University Green Framework Plan (revised in 2018)”.

In terms of social Co-creation, education and research in the university, we will take action on biodiversity conservation by working on the conservation of organisms that urgently need protection on campus, creating a forum for dialogue among the government, citizens and the university and acquiring funding for the activities.

In Toyonaka City, the preservation of large green areas is a pending issue and the green basic plan for Toyonaka City, which is an individual plan, explicitly mentions Osaka University (Mt. Machikane) and indicates the necessity of its preservation. Then the area in the university was designated as a Conservation-Conscious Area. This issue in Toyonaka City is not limited to Mt. Machikane and it is also necessary to conserve the green space around the campus while making good use of the space so that students, faculty and staff can enjoy their activities.

The activities of the "Take no Kai", which the Sustainable Campus Office has continued in collaboration with the "Take no Kai Collaboration" in Shibahara Town, can be expected to produce results even at the Suita Campus, where bamboo flourishes.

We have two major goals for the time being. First one is to understand the biodiversity in the university and local communities through research and educational activities working together with students, faculty and staff, local residents and various groups in the community. The other one is to create a network and a loose structure in order to improve the sustainability of the local community while increasing the number of friends by enjoying activities of protecting and nurturing biodiversity with students, faculty and staff, local residents and various groups in the community.

△Top of Page△

Creating a Platform of Learning Design toward a Multicultural Local Community

OH Song | Directer, Tabunka Flat Specified Nonprofit Corporation
HOMMA Naho | Professor, Center for the Study of Co*Design
ENOI Yukari | Professor, Center for Mirai Kyoso, Graduate School of Human Sciences

Osaka's Ikuno Ward has a large population of Zainichi Koreans living in Japan, and the largest Korean town in Japan is located in Tsuruhashi. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of so-called "newcomers" such as those from Vietnam, and one in five of the ward's residents are foreign nationals, the highest percentage (21%) of any urban area in Japan, with people from 66 countries and regions. Moreover, many households in Ikuno Ward have financial difficulties, and the schooling support rate is more than double the national rate. There is an urgent need to establish a system to stabilize the education and living conditions of families with diverse cultural backgrounds, including children with foreign roots.

In June 2019, a citizen-led platform was launched in Ikuno Ward to tackle these issues by building a comprehensive and multifaceted support base with diversity at the heart of community development. Under the mission of the SDGs "No one left behind," the project is a collaboration of various actors such as NPOs, citizens, government, companies, and universities, and consists of three projects: "Creation of a center," "multicultural events planning" and "surveys and proposals." In the "Creation of a Center" project, preparations are underway to establish a multicultural center in response to the draft plan for utilizing the former elementary school site.

Our project aims to work together with the local community to create the center for the local multicultural community in Ikuno. For example, we will promote the design of the learning environment through collaborative learning projects and program development, community building, and the launch of an educational consortium.

Symbiosis is the body and time that has always-already been lived by us. Ikuno – its history and its climate – in which symbiosis has been nurtured in various ways is the soil where the campus of learning truly takes root as a horizon of the unique backgrounds of each individual. In an age where rationalization and competition divide us, we must restore the form of education that should be ours, with children living in the present, not in the future. For this purpose, we will engage in dialogue and creative activities across various genres to loosen the power that hangs over us and to reweave our knowledge with the threads of "connection" that will be entwined by making us aware of our "differences."

△Top of Page△

Creating a model for sustainable urban society
based on the field study of informal settlements in Africa

KITA Michihiro | Professor, Graduate School of Engineering

Improvement of slums, which constitute settlements that have irregular land tenure, poor housing conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure services such as water and sanitation, has been a global issue since the 1960s. Developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America continue to face serious challenges in relation to the pervasiveness and proliferation of slums.

Conventional methods such as evictions and relocations, sites and services, public housing, and redevelopment have not provided permanent solutions to the challenge of slums. In view of this, we hypothesized that slum improvement requires holistic approaches that include the design and rebuilding of social and economic systems that can enhance the capacity of slum residents to engage, initiate, and manage the process of developing their living environment in collaboration with civil society and local government.

Our project is geographically situated in Accra, the capital of Ghana in the West Africa sub-region. For this project, we organized a cross-sectional project team consisting of cultural anthropologists including Professor Eisei Kurimoto and members specializing in geography, international public policy, linguistics, urban planning, and environmental energy. Accra is considered as a joint research and implementation field. For the purposes of this project, members conduct research activities in multiple fields. These survey activities are mutually reinforced and harmonized to support complementarities. By doing so, we examine hypotheses and find common solutions to complex socio-spatial and economic problems.

There are about 78 officially identified slum communities in Accra. These 78 slum communities are home to approximately 38.4% of the population of Accra. Although the government has in recent years promulgated a promising urban policy action plan and urban housing policy, experimental projects at the local level are seemingly rare or non-existence. Thus, several slum areas are constantly faced with severe challenges as such poverty, unemployment, overcrowded housing, poor sanitation and water supply, disasters (especially floods and fires), and disease outbreaks (e.g. cholera).

However, some slum communities possess organized social systems that support self-management and community-based improvement in conditions. A typical case is the indigenous quarter in La Dadekotopon district of Accra. Our previous survey revealed that the "La" area has a good self-sustaining system based on traditional system of social organization and community management. In this area, we are deciphering the socio-spatial structure, and the system of living environment management.

We plan to continue to work with the residents of community to devise a collaborative and sustainable self-management model for community improvement. We hope to assist the community utilize existing potentials to gradually evolve into a sustainable urban socio-spatial model than can be scaled-up into other slum communities in city and region. Thus, we hope to adapt this social model to other areas based on their specific conditions and attributes.

△Top of Page△

A Development of SDGs Open Innovation Platform
towards Discovering Social Issues and Exploring Solutions

KAWAKUBO Shun | Professor, Hosei University
MATSUI Takanori | Professor, Graduate School of Engineering

Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, efforts to achieve the SDGs have been promoted worldwide.

In Japan, various guidelines and plans such as "SDGs Implementation Guidelines" and "SDGs Action Plan" have been presented and various initiatives are being promoted under industry-government-academia-civil collaboration.

Efforts by local governments are essential to promote the SDGs nationwide and the importance of promoting regional revitalization driven by the SDGs and building a resilient cyclical and symbiotic society is shown. As we have entered the "Decade of Action" to achieve the SDGs, there is a need to further expand our efforts.

Based on the above background, the representatives of the project proposed formulating and promoting "local SDGs" and have been working on their dissemination. Currently, as a project of the Ministry of the Environment, the Environmental Research General Promotion Fund Research Topic 1-2104 “Research on Solving Regional Issues by Promoting Local SDGs” is being promoted. The main mission of this project is to create a knowledge base in the digital space to support all stakeholders in industry, government, academia and citizens to expand “Think globally, act locally”.

△Top of Page△

Multifaceted Investigation for Future Society Design
“Shape New World Project”

SAKUMA Hiroshi |Specially Appointed Researcher, SSI
ITO Takeshi |Professor, SSI

“Shape New World Project” aims to actively and reasonably envision the future society that will arrive in 2045. We believe that only by concretely imagining a future where science, technology and social systems undergo transformation can we create such a future. Advancing research and development solely in the direction of forecasts is like a journey without a compass or map and sometimes carries the risk of leading to a dystopia, as depicted in "Brave New World." By envisioning a bold and desirable future and creating a detailed roadmap through research and investigation, we can shape the future.

The results of this research study are scheduled to be presented through the "Shape New World Initiative" during the Theme Week of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan in eight days of sessions dedicated to Next Generation and Inclusion. The research themes of this study correspond to the theme divisions of the Theme Week, covering eight topics: The Future of Earth and Biodiversity, Health and Well-being, Peace, Human Security and Dignity, Necessities of Life: Food, Clothing and Shelter, Learning and Playing, Co-creating Cultures for the Future, The Future of Community and Mobility and SDGs+Beyond - Future Society for Life. We are advancing our research through literature reviews, including books, papers, and trend analyses, as well as interviews and hearings with experts and citizen-participatory workshops.

We recognize that small events have caused butterfly effects throughout history. However, we might be overlooking the perspective of how much our individual actions can impact the future. Activities that look ahead with a long-term perspective are gaining attention under the term "long-termism." We hope that this research study will serve as a catalyst for creating the future so that we can be good ancestors in the eyes of future generations.

△Top of Page△