We are currently collaborating with a youth educational initiative known as The Jungle Library Project. Their team goes to schools in close proximity to our study areas and teaches the students about the importance of the ecosystems they live in, aided by the use our images.

Our images are also shared with the local villagers upon return from deployment. This increases the trust and support we have with these local people who are just as keen to protect Isau Isau as we are.

PONT is part of a cooperation between four funds called the Nature Trust Alliance (NTA), to share operational services. NTA was established between the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) and PONT in June 2016. In March 2017, Blue Action Fund joined the working partnership followed by the Legacy Landscapes Fund in 2020. The mission of NTA is to “provide operational support to our partners to allow them to focus on their core missions in nature conservation”. The NTA office is in Frankfurt as all four partner funds of NTA are registered foundations in Germany. NTA enabled PONT to establish its Regional Programme Office in Tirana, Albania from which the grant programme is managed. Through this partnership for shared services, PONT is saving costs for administrative purposes (payments; accounting; reporting; audits; investment support; communication).

Users of hydrological and meteorological data in Japan have grown significantly in number with the development of new technologies and sectors; from aviation and shipping to public services such as weather forecasting, there is increasing pressure on hydromet services to provide accurate, real-time information.

Today, up-to-date information on severe weather events is provided to the general public by the JMA, in collaboration with central and local disaster management authorities and other key stakeholders. Reaching first responders and the general public is a critical component of Japan’s effective early warning system, and early warnings at the municipality level have improved over the last decade largely in part to better communication and cooperation between stakeholders.

For example, MLIT’s Erosion and Sediment Control Department established a partnership with prefectural governments to promptly issue landslide alert information to at-risk citizens.

The effort to modernize hydrological and meteorological systems in Japan began in the 1950’s and continues to the present day. For example, the JMA Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) is a network of over 1,300 automatic weather stations that was incrementally upgraded from the 1970’s. The system is now capable of collecting data sets from key stations every minute and can deliver information to end-users within 40 seconds. This data serves as a crucial input for early warning systems and enables accurate tracking of weather patterns. Another major milestone has been the series of Geostationary Meteorological Satellites (Himawari-1 to Himawari-8) which have further strengthened hydromet services in not only Japan, but across the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, the Japan Meteorological Business Support Center (JMBSC) and the Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications (FRICS) work to ensure the broader use of hydromet data by municipalities, the general public, and private sector actors.

Key institutions in Japan’s hydromet landscape have evolved since the 1950’s. For example, hydrological institutions have undergone several changes, such as after the enactment of the 1964 River Law Act (revised version). This law required authorities tasked with managing rivers to adhere to integrated river basin management principles, as opposed to more area-focused disaster management practices that were prevalent prior to this (e.g., shifting from circle levees, which only protect the builder’s community, to continuous levees, which ensure more equitable protection for the wider population). As for meteorological services, the regulatory framework was established under the Meteorological Service Act of 1952, which designated the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) as the authoritative body responsible for issuing emergency warnings.

In terms of legal framework, Japan’s laws assign clear roles and responsibilities for the National Hydrological Service (WDMB/MLIT), the National Meteorological Service (JMA), and other key stakeholders to ensure effective coordination.

Authorities activated pre-arranged agreements to mobilize contractors immediately after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, as part of what became known as “Operation Toothcomb”. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) implemented a strategy to ensure that the Tohoku expressway (an arterial road running from Tokyo to the northern tip of Japan’s Honshu island) was made passable as soon as possible, to enable delivery of relief supplies and expedite the response. As a result of this fast and coordinated response, 97 percent of the national coastal highways were accessible by 18th March, just 1 week after the earthquake struck. Additionally, the entire Tohoku Expressway was open to general traffic within 13 days of the earthquake’s occurrence.

Non-structural measures for road geohazards are those that do not involve physical construction and are often less expensive that structural measures. For example, Japanese highways often have roadside stations (michi-no-eki), which have been strategically planned to serve as evacuation centers and hubs for disaster-related information (e.g. road conditions and emergency information).  After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, roadside stations and highway parking areas were used by numerous teams and organizations as operational bases for rescue and relief efforts. Many of them were equipped with electricity, food, and water supplies, and served as emergency shelters, where important information was shared with members of the public.

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the main highways and roads to the affected areas were back up and running within weeks, which greatly expedited relief and recovery operations. This was largely due to robust structural measures, in conjunction with efficient recovery work by public services. In contrast, it took over 1 and a half years for the highway to be reconstructed after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995.

Relevant institutions in Japan work together to create and enact appropriate laws and regulations, as well as national and local government plans and strategies (e.g., Japan Rail, local government, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism collaborating on road geohazard risk management). Japan’s framework also includes institutional and technical coordination, and appropriate funding mechanisms. For example, the cost of adding height to an expressway can be shared by both public works organizations and disaster risk management organizations. These types of cost-sharing mechanisms ensure that financial burdens are shared equitably.

The national government provides local governments with additional subsidies for seismic retrofitting and reconstruction of schools with insufficient seismic capacity. In principle, national subsidies for retrofitting and reconstruction cover one-third of associated costs for public elementary and junior high schools, but the national share has been raised to two-thirds and one-half respectively in 2008 under the Act on Special Measures for Earthquake Disaster Countermeasures. Furthermore, additional sources of funding were generated through local bonds and local tax allocation by local governments. In Shizuoka prefecture, located in the Tokai area where earthquake probability is high, the local government increased corporate income tax by 7-10 percent for 15 years to allocate budget for making public buildings more earthquake resistant. Kushiro municipality’s retrofitting completion rate remained at 50 percent for a decade due to lack of funds, however, this increased the rate to 85.8 percent within 3 years of introducing the PFI system.