DATE / TIME:

2015•05•28    14:00 - 17:45

Location:

Kanazawa

Kanazawa City is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for crafts and folk arts, and is hosting the annual meeting of the Creative Cities Network on 26–27 May 2015. To make full use of this opportunity with representatives gathering from member cities around the world, UNU-IAS Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK) will hold an international symposium on 28 May, titled Introducing the Ishikawa–Kanazawa Biocultural Region: A Model for Linkages between Cultural Prosperity and Surrounding Satoyama and Satoumi Areas.

UNU-IAS OUIK has been conducting research focusing on how ecosystem services are associated with interrelated cultural and biological diversity. This research looks at how the tangible and intangible aspects of culture in Kanazawa City are influenced by the ecological conditions of surrounding rural areas and vice versa. This symposium will introduce how prosperous cultural traditions have developed in Kanazawa through linkages with the biodiversity in the area. Invited speakers from UNESCO and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s joint programme Linking Biological and Cultural Diversity will also report on international trends on the linkages between cultural and biological diversity.

Simultaneous English–Japanese interpretation will be provided for this event.

Download the event programme.

Registration

To register, please send your name, affiliation, and contact information, with “28 May OUIK Symposium Registration” in the subject line, to UNU-IASOUIK@unu.edu.

Programme

14:00–14:15 Opening Remarks
Kazuhiko Takeuchi (Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University)

14:15–14:35 Keynote Speech 1 “Links between biological and cultural diversity”
John Scott (Co-coordinator of the UNESCO SCBD Joint Programme on the Links between Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity, Division of Mainstreaming, Partnership and Outreach, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity)

14:35–14:55 Keynote Speech 2 “Biocultural diversity for sustainable development”
Ana Persic (Science Specialist, UNESCO Office in New York; Co-coordinator of the UNESCO SCBD Joint Programme on the Links between Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity)

14:55–15:15 Keynote Speech 3 “Florence Declaration on Biocultural Diversity”
Mauro Agnolletti (Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems (GESAAF), University of Florence, Italy)

15:15–15:30 Coffee Break

15:30–16:30 Presentations from Kanazawa and Ishikawa (15 minutes each)

• Case 1 Visualizing linkages between cultural and biological diversity in Kanazawa City
  Yoshihiko Iida (Research Associate, UNU-IAS OUIK), Kazuhiko Hirata (City of Kanazawa)
• Case 2 The challenge of creative city, Kanazawa
  Mamoru Harino (Head of the Nature Conservation Group, Environmental Policy Division, Environment Department, City of Kanazawa)
• Case 3 The creative food culture
  Ichinari Tsukuda (Tsukuda-Shokuhin Co., LTD./President, Ishikawa Food Association)
• Case 4 Health and biocultural diversity (TBC)
  Hiroyuki Nakamura (Professor, Kanazawa University)

16:30–16:50 Introduction of Ishikawa-Kanazawa Biocultural Region
Asami Shikida (Professor, Hokkaido University; Visiting Professor, UNU-IAS)

16:50–17:35 Panel Discussion (comments on the Kanazawa and Ishikawa cases)
“How to promote linkages between the abundant nature and culture in Ishikawa” (TBC)

Moderator: Tsunao Watanabe (Director, UNU-IAS OUIK)
Panellists:

• Asami Shikida
• John Scott
• Ana Persic
• Mauro Agnolletti
• Mamoru Harino
• Kosuke Terasaka (Director, Planning and Development Department, Ishikawa Prefecture)

17:35–17:45 Closing Remarks
Koji Nakamura　(Specially Appointed Professor, Kanazawa University; Visiting Professor, UNU-IAS)

Organizer

UNU-IAS Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK)

Co-organizers

Ishikawa Prefecture, City of Kanazawa

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This event will be held as part of the UNU-IAS Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa’s (OUIK) project activities.