25 February 2006

Yu Shirai, volunteer, Japan

Hi, my name is Yu Shirai, I’m 24 and I live in Chiba Prefecture in suburban Tokyo with my family. I was studying Applied Chemistry at Waseda University before I left Tokyo. I used to commute for 45 minutes each way in a super fast train that travels about 130 km pre hour. The express trains go even faster (350 km per hour!).

There’s not much green in Tokyo city, except for a few ‘designer’ trees along some streets. There are so many tall buildings that in some places you can’t even see the sun.

I have had no contact with Greenpeace before, but I have a strong interest in environment groups. I had the chance to visit New Zealand in 2003 to meet with groups that worked on ecotimber, recycling and wildlife preservation issues. I also studied Forest Management in Germany for a year.

Japan is the second largest importer of logs from Papua New Guinea. It's really important for me to know where the timber that arrives in Japan is comming from and how it is produced.

I'm keen to learn as much as I can about what is happening here in order to bring information about illegal logging back to Japan, and to help the landowners to protect their home in the ancient forests.

The Global Forest Rescue Station is a worthwhile profject and I'm hoping we can help the landowners mark the boundaries of as much as the area as possible.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/cgi-bin/mv/mt-tb.cgi/1323