KIX Certified for Its Seaweed Beds on the Seawalls by the Ministry of the Environment as a “Natural Symbiosis Site" - Contributing to Biodiversity Conservation in Osaka Bay -

Kansai Airports is delighted to announce that the seaweed beds that spread across the seawalls of Kansai International Airport (KIX) were certified as “a natural symbiosis site" by the Ministry of the Environment.

The "natural symbiosis site" certification program is a new system launched by the Ministry of the Environment officially this fiscal year, which certifies areas where biodiversity is conserved through initiatives and efforts by private sectors. The program aims to certify at least 100 sites in 2023, and the seaweed beds on the seawalls of the KIX islands were certified as one of them. KIX is the only airport certified under this program to date.

KIX is the world's first full-scale offshore airport, built by reclaiming the land 5 km off the coast of Senshu. And the vision since the start of the airport construction has been to make it an environmentally friendly airport. With various measures, such as adoption of gently sloping rubble mound seawalls for most of the seawalls, seaweed seed planting, and conservation based on the results of monitoring surveys, the seaweed beds around KIX now represent about 20% of the  seaweed beds in Osaka Bay, providing habitats for a variety of fish and shellfish.

The seaweed beds at KIX were recognized and certified as a natural symbiosis site since the seaweed beds support the  ecosystem and play a vital role in the conservation of biodiversity in Osaka Bay. Other recognition has come our way from  various fields such as the one for our tireless efforts in creating the seaweed bed environment, following the certification  and issuance of J Blue Credit* last December.

Kansai Airports Group continues to propel initiatives for decarbonization, circular economy and environmental symbiosis to contribute to a sustainable society.

* J Blue Credit: Blue carbon that is quantified and made tradable as credits. The seaweed beds at KIX were certified and issued with the J Blue Credit in December 2022 for the absorbed CO2 of 103.2 tons (for the 5 years from FY2017 to FY2021).

"Natural Symbiosis Site" Certification Program
A "natural symbiosis site" refers to "an area where biodiversity is preserved through initiatives and efforts by private sectors. The certification is officially granted when companies or other entities submit applications for the certification that are then reviewed by the Ministry of the Environment. The certified areas are then registered to the international database as “OECM*1” unless such areas overlap with already protected areas, such as national parks. Certified parties can use this certification to publicize their direct contribution to the global targets for biodiversity conservation, including the "30by30*2 target.
 

*1: OECM (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures) refers to “areas where biodiversity within the areas is conserved” apart from protected areas.
 

*2: 30by30 (thirty by thirty) aims to effectively conserve more than 30% of land and sea as healthy ecosystems by 2030 in order to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 (nature positive). This was one of the targets included in the Kunming-Montreal BiodiversitFramework adopted at the Second Part of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in 2022.
 

For more information about the natural symbiosis site program (website of the Ministry of the Environment): https://policies.env.go.jp/nature/biodiversity/30by30alliance/kyousei/ (Japanese only)