Biodiversity Conservation Initiatives

At the G7 Summit held in the UK in June 2021, G7 leaders agreed G7 2030 Nature Compact and all G7 countries promised to conserve or protect at least 30% of their national land and sea areas by 2030 ('30by30') toward the goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss (nature positive).

Toward domestically achieving the 30by30 target, Japan has launched the 30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity at the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment. In addition to expanding Japan’s current protected areas such as national parks and improving its management quality, a scheme is implemented to register areas that have been conserved by the private sector and others as OECM*.

In June 2022, our company joined the 30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity, aiming to obtain OECM certification for the 'Ikoi no Mori' biotope at the Shizuoka Plant and to contribute to the conservation of 30% of land and sea by 2030.

As part of its efforts to achieve nature positive, the Ministry of the Environment started a system in 2023 to certify areas that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity as a result of initiatives by the private sector and others (i.e. corporate forests, satochi-satoyama landscapes and urban green spaces) as OECM. Applications were accepted from April this year and experts reviewed them. The Minister of Environment designated 122 locations (across 35 prefectures) as OECMs for the first time. The total area of these 122 locations is approximately 77,000 hectares, which is approximately 0.2% of the total land, exceeding Tokyo's 23 wards.

In the Shizuoka Plant of Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.,2100 Takayanagi,Fujieda, Shizuoka 426-0041

The results of an investigation into the relationship between the business sites of our Group worldwide and protected areas where biodiversity is considered important indicated that none of our business sites were located in these areas. Although not a protected area, the results of an ecosystem survey conducted in fiscal 2011 at the site of our Shizuoka Plant located in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, confirmed the presence of Japanese killifish, a vulnerable species (VU). After determining the strong need for preserving the biodiversity of this site, we decided to create a company biotope. The creation and maintenance of the biotope were completed in March 2017. The biotope, which occupies about 5% of the Shizuoka Plant’s 287,000m² site, serves as a habitat for a wide variety of fauna and flora, including ancient Oga lotus and jewel beetles, among others, in addition to Japanese killifish.

We continue to engage in communication with local communities, such as by spreading the word on the significance of our biotope for biodiversity to the community and supplying some of the Japanese killifish that have taken root and multiplied within our biotope to neighboring locations.

During fiscal 2022, the impact of the COVID-19 infections resulted in a major decrease in visitor numbers. In addition, visitor reception of school study excursions has remained suspended in order to prevent the spread of contagion. At the same time, we continue to engage in dialogue with neighboring elementary schools regarding biodiversity conservation efforts centered on the biotope, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as in the previous year, we have responded to requests for visiting guest lessons at schools, field trips using the biotope, and other activities. We provided a total of approximately 120 killifish to four elementary schools in the neighborhood, and gave a visiting guest lesson at four schools (356 students in total) on how to conserve Japanese killifish while introducing our SDG initiatives. In addition, two field trip visits to the biotope were made (total 280 students), one in the spring and the other in the fall, and a set of visiting guest lessons and tour of the biotope provided as one class (70 students). We will continue to strengthen relations mainly with local elementary schools into the future.