The Meeting for Presenting Research Topics of NIAES took place at EPOCHAL TSUKUBA, the Tsukuba International Conference Hall, on April 23, 2002.  It was the first official lecture meeting held outside of the institute, commemorating the first anniversary of the reorganization of the institute as an incorporated administrative agency.  The opening address was given by Katsuyuki Minami, Director General of NIAES, followed by the special lecture, "Environmental risk management" by Junko Nakanishi, Director of the Research Center for Chemical Risk Management of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

The following recent research topics of NIAES were presented: "Amounts of greenhouse gas emission from agricultural land and technology for reduction of the gas emission," "Prediction of the agricultural production change accompanying global warming," "Environmental impact assessment of genetically modified crops," and "Present situation of dioxins remaining in the agro-environment."  In the overall discussion, the last program, chaired by Executive Director Tsuyoshi Mitamura, questions and answers covered such issues as the contribution of agricultural activities to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission, safety evaluation of genetically modified crops, and possible mixing of dioxins into agrochemicals used formerly.

Attendants were 246 in total of 133 from outside of NIAES and 113 from the institute.  The questionnaire on this meeting gathered impressions and opinions from about 100 attendants.  The feedbacks were generally favorable, for example, "Was good," "Topics were suitable," or "The presentations were easy to understand," while some comments were critical, for example, "More detailed presentations and discussion would have been expected," "Used too many technical words," or "Supporting either the administrators or the producers was not necessary."  Other opinions, such as "I look forward to the next meeting," and "Presentations of topics in other fields expected for future programs," suggest major expectations by the general public to NIAES.  The meeting will take place every other year.

Dioxins have been known to be extremely toxic, persistent in the environment, and bio-accumulative.  Recently, dioxins, including Co-PCBs, discharged into the environment are suspected of interfering with the endocrine systems of organisms, even in extremely small quantities.  To solve these serious problems, the Japanese government initiated research programs under its Millennium Project and an integrated research project, "Environmental Hormones Project," which was conducted from 1999 through 2002 under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

The workshop, "Effects of dioxins on agriculture, forestry and fisheries and their mechanisms of action on animals and fishes" organized in collaboration with NIAES, MAFF, National Agricultural Research Organization, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and Fisheries Research Agency was held at the Tsukuba International Congress Center from December 4 to 6, 2002.  Following an opening address given by Dr.  Minami, Director General of NIAES, 21 speakers presented topics on biological impacts and the fate of dioxins from viewpoints of various research fields.  There were 16 speakers from Japan, 2 from USA, 2 from Korea and 1 from Canada, and approximately 200 individuals including other research institutions, universities and private sectors participated in the workshop.

Participants exchanged information and discussed the results of the research and future subjects of the study.  The presentations can be categorized according to the research topics of the dioxins. 1) Biological impacts: Seven participants made presentations about contamination and biological impacts of dioxins in wildlife and humans from Asia-Pacific and North America, and bioaccumulation of dioxins in birds, fishes and animals.  2) Dynamics in the environment: There were eight presentations on the levels and contamination pathways of dioxins in air, paddy and upland soil, and plants such as rice and vegetables, and on the risk assessments in Japan and Korea.  3) Degradation/Bioremediation: To clean-up dioxin-contaminated soil and water, the effective technology using biological and chemical degradation methods were discussed.

A variety of materials has been circulating throughout the atmosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and biosphere in a sustainable manner.  In the middle of the 20th century and onward, however, vigorous human activities have been disturbing the sustainability of the material circulation, and brought about various ill-balanced material flows, resulting in a rise in greenhouse gases (GHG), water shortage, soil deterioration, natural resource exhaustion, accumulation of toxic chemical substances, and a reduction in biological diversity.

East Asian countries, in particular, China, Korea and Japan possess a variety of agro-environmental problems in common such as emission of GHG from farmland, elevated CO₂ affecting crop growth, pollution of soils and crops by heavy metals and dioxins, deterioration of water quality, environmental risk of invader species, and GMO and GM-crops.  NIAES, the leading institute in agro-environmental research in Japan has successively concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with each of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea (2001) and the Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People's Republic of China (2002) in order to enhance the three parties' research collaboration on the common problems in agro-environments, and to work out better solutions collaboratively.

As the first high-profiled step for the three-party research collaboration, an international workshop on The Material Circulation through Agro-Ecosystems in East Asia and Assessment of its Environmental Impact planned to share relevant information regarding agro-environmental problems in East Asia, among top scientists in China, Korea, and Japan.  The workshop was held at EPOCHAL TSUKUBA, Tsukuba, Japan on March 25-27, 2003, with 27 proposals from the countries under the following 5 topics.  Almost 150 participants joined this workshp (Photo).  In the workshop, participants discussed important common issues in agro-environment in East Asia, and the feasible and effective schemes for collaborative research to work out better solutions to mitigate the ill-balanced material cycle in agro-environments and its environmental impact.  The topics were as follows:

Topic A: Regional Agriculture and Environment in East Asia,

Topic B: Greenhouse Gas Emission and Sequestration in Agro-Ecosystem,

Topic C: Cycling of Farm Chemicals in Agro-Ecosystem,

Topic D: GMO & GMP, Bio-Remediation and Bio-Diversity,

Topic E: Construction of Environmental Resources Inventory and its Utilization

In the general discussion, the representatives from the therr countries pledged future collaboration to cope with the current disturbing situations.  Finally, the chair proposed to hold the meeting in China in the following year.  (Groupe photo shoud be attached)