Promotion of New Township along the Public Transit Corridors

The city designated 436 hectares for an urban core district, 19 public transit corridors (including both light rail transit and bus lines), and 3,489 hectares for residential promotion areas along the corridors, for which special subsidies became available for qualified home builders, new housing owners, and multi-family apartment residents. Consequently, the number of new residential properties along the promoted transit lines increased 1.32 times for the period of 2004 to 2009.

  • Financial incentives for home owners along the public transit corridors
  • Commercial facilities, schools, hospitals etc. available within walking distance from public transit nodes and stations

Toyama's approach to attract development along the public transit corridors proved successful especially when this was backed by financial incentives. This in turn has led to indirectly disincentivising living in city fringe areas.

Reinvestment in Public Transit

The city introduced Japan’s first light rail transit (LRT), called PORTRAM, by utilizing the former JR Toyama-port line’s right of way accompanied by the extension of bullet train services to Toyama Station. The PORTRAM system with barrier-free stations and low-floor vehicles over the operation length of 7.6 km can smoothly carry elderly and disabled passengers to a variety of city destinations and bring wider environmental benefits, such as reduction in noise, air pollution, and CO2 emissions, to the whole city. Importantly, innovative project finance schemes were applied to split the roles of railway construction and system operation between public and private partners for the Toyama LRT. The public sector covers all the construction cost of the LRT system, including vehicles, railways, and depots, and the maintenance cost of these facilities, whereas the transit operator founded by several local governments and private companies recovers operation costs from fare revenues. The city filled the capital funding gap by arranging the national government’s road improvement programs and contributions from transit companies and by saving land acquisition costs with the former JR railway’s right of way.

  • Attention to universal accessibility for all
  • Innovative project finance schemes for public-private partnership
  • Sufficient funding support from the city

Caveat of applying this approach is that specifically for the Toyama case, the city had sufficient funds to cover construction cost of the LRT system, including vehicles, railways, and depots, and the maintenance cost of these facilities. Utilizing  right of ways of previous public transport systems can also be useful.

Availability of Data

Three types of data were particularly important in the design and promotion of the “Program for Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings”: school data, data on damages, and data on hazard risks. School data was collected by surveys and investigations conducted by FDMA and MEXT. A list of the surveys is indicated below.

  • School Basic Survey (annually since 1948) to collect basic data.
  • Public School Facilities Survey (annually since 1954) to collect building area and conditions of school facilities.
  • Status of Seismic Resistance of Public School Facilities (annually since 2002) to collect data on the seismic resistance of school structures as well as suspended ceilings of gymnasiums and other nonstructural elements of school buildings.

Earthquake Damage Investigation (after each mega-disaster such as the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake) to collect damage to buildings, specifically the kind of damage suffered by various types of buildings, the location where the damage occurred and under what circumstances, and the kind of earthquake that caused the damage.

Use of social networks and non-traditional media to publicize the initiative

The communication strategy to disseminate the importance and actions of the CPY must be inclusive and innovative, through the creation of a brand and key messages to transmit each year to cyclists, participants should easily identify the main objective of the initiative.
In this sense, we create advertising products such as: press conference, advertising, infographics, maps, posters, jersey, buff, medals that are disclosed during the promotion and the development of events through digital platforms and social networks: website, facebook, twitter, etc. .).
Another space to spread the concept of cycling is that during the tour there are strategic stops for hydration, healthy and natural snacks for cyclists; These spaces are used by local governments and communities to promote the products of their agrobiodiversity and bioemprendimientos.
To socialize the concept of sustainability, during the advertising campaign on social networks, it is indicated that the food will be delivered in sustainable containers (banana leaves) and that the hydration will be delivered in its reusable bottles (plastic bottles should not be used).

Define a clear concept that we want to spread among cyclists.
Maintain the commitment of local governments to promote the products of their agrobiodiversity.
Establish the appropriate communication channels to reach the target group.
Use a registration website for the conceptualization of the event: yawisumak.cicloviajerosec.com / www.ciclorutadelagarua.com
Have a creative graphic designer and aware of the objective to be transmitted.

Having a concept of the bike-trip encourages interest and increases the participation of cyclists.
The dissemination of CPY concepts in advance during the promotion of the event is essential to sensitize cyclists.
The website and social networks are key platforms to have a national reach.
Having a good quality photographic record allows the participants to identify themselves in social networks, tag and share the photos and the message of the event once the event is over.

Sale and marketing of organic products

Trio Farmers Cacao Growers Association growers are able to maintain sustainable livelihoods through the sale and marketing of organic Belizean cacao, honey and vegetables.

Ya’axché support staff provides annual training of plot management skills and business planning and marketing.

Sale of organic products secures a unique and profitable market to support indigenous livelihoods.

Implementation of climate smart agriculture methods

The Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve Concession utilizes climate smart agriculture such as agro-forestry and Inga-alley cropping. Both of these methods combine agriculture with conservation of trees to create a sustainable land-use system, which increases carbon sequestration and crop yield. In addition, Inga-alley cropping uses species such as Inga edulis and Inga fueillei (leguminous, nitrogen-fixing trees) to improve soil health and reduce use of herbicides. With the preservation of permanent shade trees, and the planting of temporary shade trees and fruit trees, the cyclical production of the farm provides a sustainable yield that maximizes all products on the land. Planting Inga trees in rows supports a healthy yield of integrated fruit trees that are nurtured by the improved soil fertility provided from Inga species. This system reduces the amount of land needed for planting and provides valuable secondary uses like firewood, mulch and pest control.

The acquisition of the agro-forestry concession granted access to 936 acres for cacao-based agriculture within the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve. Areas for planting were chosen using remote sensing to identify land that had already been used in the past. In addition a new set of roads/trails were built to provide access to the concession.

 

A clear idea of climate smart agricultural methods is needed before implementation. Training/workshops for farmers is vital to properly implement these methods.

Ya’axché has learned that the future success of the concession means that research into shade management and yields will need to be done to maintain good practices.

 

Establishment of nursery seedlings

The establishment of a nursery supports high yield local cacao varietals, fruit and timber species to encourage growth of climate smart agroforestry farms. This ensures sustainability and productivity of agroforestry plots and supports promotion of these methods to new farmers.

With the support of Ya’axché technical staff, Trio Farmers Cacao Growers Association constructed a one-acre nursery on the concession. In addition, the maintenance and watering of seedlings/saplings in the nursery is done by wives and children of Trio farmers.

The nursery serves to help new farmers start their own climate smart agriculture farms as well as ensure future research into high yield varieties of plants.

Maintaining organic crops

The Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve makes up a vital part of the Monkey River Watershed, which supports livelihood of many communities. The prohibition of pesticides and herbicides through organic farming ensures maintenance of water quality to support aquatic species and provide healthy water to communities.

By employing climate smart agricultural methods such as Inga-alley cropping, and agro-forestry, the need for herbicide and pesticides is naturally reduced. In addition, Ya’axché support staff offered technical training on organic pest control methods.

The advice of a consultant is vital to ensure proper methods of organic farming are used. Ya’axché has provided training to farmers in agro-forestry and organic pest reduction techniques through a hired consultant, Dr Reuben Sanchez from the Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical Alejandro de Hunboldt in  Cuba. There were a total of 7 workshops in an introduction to agro-ecological principles with a focus on cacao and coffee pest management, seed selection, collection and storage, biogas, mulching.

Training and support of indigenous farmers

Ya’axché supports indigenous farmers of the Trio Farmers Cacao Growers Association (TFCGA) with training on climate smart agricultural methods such as agro-forestry, Inga-alley cropping, organic farming and beekeeping.  Training in proper climate smart agricultural techniques ensures that the agroforestry concession is providing benefits to both humans and nature.

 

 

Through the Community Outreach and Leadership program at Ya’axché, workshops on basic climate smart agriculture techniques were held following Ya’axché's Integrated Farming Manual. In addition Ya’axché regularly engages farmers in visits to climate smart demonstration farms within the concession that exhibit the benefits of these methods.The demonstration plots were developed by TFCGA farmers with the aid of Ya’axché support staff.

 

Ya’axché has found that hands-on learning/workshops and demonstration plots are most effective in training of farmers as they are able to see concrete outcomes of the climate smart methods we promote. In addition, most of our technical support staff are farmers themselves who implement these practices on their personal farms and are able to offer personal insight.

Local micro-finance institution

It is a local micro-finance institution developed and owned  by the people aimed at providing microcredit to local groups and individuals to support ecological friendly project.

Remits 30% of its annual profits and surpluses to the Forest Protection Fund to support conservation and charitable projects.

The conditions are; Constant training and capacity buildling on the importance of micro-finance Institution to economic development, constant follow ups to ensure its effective implementation, recruitment of trained personells in the field of microfinance management and development.

 

The challenges faced during the implementation of this building block are;

Insuficient funds to intensify education of members, some communities adjacent to the Protected Area are resistant to the inovation