News

There are several reasons for OISCA-International to celebrate the year 2001. First, OISCA is observing its 40th anniversary in 2001. Secondly, the coming year is also the International Year of Volunteers, as designated by the United Nations. And finally, the year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Children's Forest Program (CFP) - a highly acclaimed practical environmental education program for students and pupils of schools, which has grown to involve as many as 2,218 schools in 21 countries by March 2000.
Hence, OISCA has decided to make the coming year TRULY SPECIAL for its members and supporters, by conducting a few major projects, and hopefully to leap into the 21st Century with enhanced experience, wisdom, solidarity, and enthusiasm. Specifically, OISCA Headquarters is already working on the preparation of following projects:

Co-sponsor the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum of the United Nations System May 2001

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) approached OISCA with a proposal to co-sponsor the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum of the United Nations Systems, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in May 2001. This proposal is based on OISCA's close cooperation with ESCAP in the past, in which OISCA supported the latter on a number of occasions, especially in the sphere of youth development.
The Forum will include youth leaders from all member countries of ESCAP. A participant should be within an age group of 15-25 years old, and is required to be knowledgeable of the youth policy of his/her country, as well as of the health issues of youth and adolescents generally. OISCA has been requested to sponsor the participation of 25 youth leaders from several countries, and invited to introduce our Children's Forest Program.
The Forum will be organized as part of the UN initiative under a mandate to address the problems that todayfs youth face in the world. Some regions have an equivalent Youth Forum in 2000, and others will have one in 2001. The outcomes of the series of Youth Forums will be merged at the World Youth Forum, which is to be held toward the end of 2001.

Organize "Global Forum on Education for a Sustainable Future" October 2001

The Forum is scheduled to run for two days in Tokyo, and include several sessions, each focusing on relevant subjects within the general theme as expressed in the title above. We hope that it will be an event attended by many (perhaps over 100) formal participants, mostly from overseas - including academics and officers of international organizations, governments, and NGOs. The Forum shall also welcome the attendance of many observers from various countries.
The purpose of the Forum is two-fold. It seeks to invite the attention of the Japanese public to the need for quality environmental education to possibly counter the deepening worldwide environmental crisis, and to underline the unique merit of participatory or experiential education. It also intends to help enhance environmental education in the world by providing the occasion for an international group of specialists to introduce their own views and experiences to possibly learn from each other, and by encouraging the formation of a productive network.

Organize "Ten Thousand People's Gathering on the Future of Children and the Environment"

This Gathering is planned for the day following the Forum above. It is scheduled to last for a few hours and consists of two sessions. The first session introduces OISCA's activities, including (1) the Children's Forest Program and (2) "Love Green Action 2001"(see below). The second session includes performances by musical artists who have been supportive of environmentalism, volunteerism, and internationalism. While the great majority of the participants will be Japanese citizenry, most of the formal participants and observers to the Forum from overseas are likely to attend this event as well.
The objectives of the Gathering include: first, to invite the attention of Japanese citizens to the global environmental deterioration, and to encourage them to think about how they can contribute to the protection and restoration of Mother Earth; and second, to encourage their participation in, and support for, trans-national volunteer services for the well-being of the human community in general.

Orchestrate "Love Green Action 2001" - Dispatching 2001 Forestation Volunteers from Japan Throughout 2001

A reader particularly knowledgeable of OISCA may know that, in every year, some 1,500 members and supporters of OISCA Japan travel to developing countries to get to know the people and land, and most of them engage in hands-on "love-green" volunteer work. For the coming year, the Headquarters is planning to dispatch a larger number of such volunteers, either 2001 or more, to be exact. This massive group of international visitors should symbolically demonstrate OISCA Japan's commitment to volunteerism, environmentalism, and international brother / sister-hood, and thus help confirm the local communities' commitment to take good care of their own natural environments.