AEON Environmental Foundation 30th anniversary ceremony

AEON Environmental Foundation (Chairman: Takuya Okada, Honorary Chairman and Advisor of AEON Co., Ltd.) held the AEON Environmental Foundation 30th anniversary ceremony today.

Okada stressed the importance of AEON Forest Program. In cooperation with local volunteers around the world, the foundation have planted a total of over 12.23 million trees in forests destroyed by logging and natural disasters to date. The tree-planting sites have been transformed into forests full of life, where greenery has regenerated and a variety of organisms thrive, and today, in addition to tree planting, the program has evolved into an activity to nurture and utilize tree.

Japan is a forest nation where forests cover about 70% of the country. Japanese life has been deeply connected to forests since ancient times. Among these forests, Satoyama is a nature that humans have access to, and they represent a state where both nature and humans coexist.

Satoyama’s efforts share the tradition and values of HIMA, which has been working on the coexistence of the people in the region and all living things such as wild animals, birds, insects and threes. The wisdom that Lebanon and Japan have each nurtured will be in a position to disseminate insight and best practices a model of a global community that seeks sustainability.

Mr. Assad Serhal, Director General of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon; and winner of 5th MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity (2018) participated in the ceremony that was held online.

The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity was established in 2010 at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) in Nagoya to commemorate the 20th anniversary of AEON foundation. The Prize is an international award to honor individuals for their notable activities for the environment that promote the preservation of biological diversity and the advancement of sustainable practices at the global level.

AEON Environmental Foundation is working together with stakeholders in four main fields of AEON Forest Program, Environmental Assistance, Environmental Education, and Environmental Partnership to create a future of limitless promise.

AEON Environmental Foundation was established in 1990 under AEON’s Basic Principles of “Pursuing peace, respecting humanity, and contributing to local communities, always with the customer’s point of view at its core.” Ever since, the foundation’s main projects have been focused on reforestation, biodiversity, and the provision of grants to NPOs/NGOs undertaking environmental activities. Including the foundation’s efforts, the Aeon Group has planted approx. 12.23 million trees (as of end of February 2021) since 1991. AEON Environmental Foundation website: https://www.aeon.info/ef/en/