Message from The Sponsor/開催によせて
Japan is the world's largest importer of crude oil and is a prodigious consumer of many petroleum products. In fact, without oil imports, the industrial revival of the post-war period could not have happened, and Japan's ongoing economic prosperity is dependent on our consumption of petroleum products. However, there is another side to this story : the annual influx of billions of barrels of petroleum exposes this country to the potential danger of oil pollution.
The Nippon Foundation is strongly committed to developing ever more effective environmental protection and disaster relief strategies. Supported by the Foundation, many organizations, including Japan Maritime Disaster Prevention Center, Ship & Ocean Foundation and The Japan Association of Marine Safety, are engaged in research into measures to combat oil spills and to develop the optimum equipment to prevent or contain spills. The Nippon Foundation was quick to respond when the Russian tanker NAKHODKA sank in the Japan Sea off Shimane Prefecture, releasing a large quantity of heavy fuel oil. The resulting oil slick spread across 800 km of coastline, and affected the coastal areas of nine prefectures. The Foundation gave active support to the local communities, helping the residents and volunteers to remove the oil and clean up the polluted shorelines.
As many as 2,500 Iarge tankers transport oil across the world's oceans every day. The NAKHODKA incident draws our attention to the fact that the possibility of a disastrous oil spill is always there, whether as a result of bad weather or actions arising from political disturbances such as the Gulf War. One of the vital missions of a non-government organization (NGO) such as this Foundation is to accumulate information on oil spill incidents. This information can, in turn, be made available to other countries that also face the threat of these incidents. We believe that this is the kind of mission that NGOs like ours can well undertake.
The tanker NAKHODKA left not only oil debris but also many other intractable problems for us to address. With this latest spill still so fresh in our minds, we think it is a most opportune time to hold a symposium to discuss such topics as effective response measures to oil spills in rough weather conditions. The Japanese and foreign experts invited to this symposium are the people with direct experience in combating large-scale oil spills. We hope that this symposium will help to develop increasingly effective oil spill response measures.
Ayako Sono
Chairman
The Nippon Foundation
我が国は、石油の一大輸入・消費国であり、戦後の目覚ましい経済発展も石油を抜きにしては語れません。しかしその反面、常に油汚染発生の危険にさらされてきたことも事実であると申せましょう。
日本財団では環境保全と災害救援に係る取り組みの一環として、従来から海上災害防止センター、シップ・アンド・オーシャン財団、日本海難防止協会等の活動に対する支援を通じ、流出油防除対策や油防除資機材の研究開発を推進してまいりました。9府県の海岸線800キロにわたって油の漂着をみた、先のナホトカ号油流出事故に際しても、被災地における地元住民やボランティアによる漂着油の除去作業等に対し、いち早く積極的な支援を行ったところであります。
ナホトカ号事故は、今日世界の海に約2,500隻にのぼる大型タンカーが日々航行しており、悪天侯や湾岸戦争に代表される政治的混乱により、油流出事故が発生する可能性が常に伏在している事実に改めて私どもの注意を促す結果となりました。将来同様の油流出事故が発生した場合、我が国のみならず各国の関係者の参考となる情報を整備することは、私どもNGOの重要な使命であり、同時にNGOであればこそよくする使命でもあると確信する次第です。
以上の観点から、今般シップ・アンド・オーシャン財団ではナホトカ号事故の記憶も新たな時期に、荒天時に油流出事故が発生した場合の対処方策等につき、大規模油流出事故に直接関与した経験をもつ内外専門家の参加のもと、シンポジウムを開催することとなりました。本シンポジウムが、今後も起こりかねない油流出事故の効果的な対応の実現に資することを期待致します。
日本財団
会長 曽野綾子
