Akira Miyawaki
| Akira Miyawaki | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 宮脇 昭 |
| Born | 29 January 1928 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Hiroshima University |
| Occupation | Botanist |
| Awards |
Asahi Prize (1990) Blue Planet Prize (2006) |
Akira Miyawaki (宮脇 昭 Miyawaki Akira?, born 29 January 1928) is a Japanese botanist and expert in plant ecology, specializing in seeds and the study of natural forests. He is active worldwide as a specialist in the restoration of natural vegetation on degraded land. Since 1993, he has been Professor Emeritus at Yokohama National University and Director of the Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology. He received the Blue Planet Prize in 2006.
Since the 1970s, Akira Miyawaki has advocated the value of natural forests and the urgent need to restore them. He considers that the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro failed to protect native forests and that (except very locally) they continue to decline or deteriorate.
Miyawaki observed the trees which traditionally grew around temples, shrines, and cemeteries in Japan, such as Japanese Blue Oak, Castanopsis cuspidata, Bamboo-leaf Oak, Japanese Chestnut trees, and Machilus tunbergii (a tree from the laurel family). He showed that they were native species, relics of the primary forest. At the same time, he noted that trees such as Japanese Cedar, Cypress and Larch Pine, supposedly native to Japan, had in fact been introduced into Japan over centuries by foresters in order to produce timber. Miyawaki was led to reflect on the consequences of the change in composition and sometimes structure of the majority of Japanese forests, which are now far away from their original natural vegetation.
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