Designing a circular cities declaration for Japan building on the European Union's case study.

Japan is progressing towards its circular economy (CE) goals as many of its cities have adopted circular city (CC) policies and programs, although further progress is constrained as a result of the lack of a common framework. A novel framework was proposed with the "European circular cities declaration" (ECCD) (2020), consisting of a list of 10 principles committing to integrate circularity into the city's design, development, and management. As a foremost finding, and building on the authors' previous studies of Japan's CE and CC, this work shaped a circular cities declaration (CCD) for Japan following a triple-axis methodology; It (1) evaluates the ECCD as a baseline, (2) adapts it to Japan's unique socio-economic landscape, and (3) considers the three pillars of sustainable development, offering practical guidance for governments facing similar challenges. This environmental management tool goes beyond the EU one providing a model of hybrid governance and monitoring and evaluation mechanism. The resulting declaration is intended for the government to facilitate a transition from insulated CE policies to holistic CC ones, but also for businesses, academia, and communities; Thus, it may aid in endorsing a cities' common framework and shared vision to harness the potential of CC to address environmental issues, foster innovation and collaboration toward a resilient future in Japan.

The rising phenomenon of circular cities in Japan. Case studies of Kamikatsu, Osaki and Kitakyushu.

Japan has a culture of appreciating nature, but Japan is the 7th biggest waste producer of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, as it only recycles 19,6 %, deposits 1 % in landfills, and incinerates the rest. Japan also has one of the lowest rates (20 %) of renewable energy of OECD countries, and recently has decided to reactivate nuclear power plants. In contrast, cases of local circular economy initiatives are increasing in Japan. This suggests an opportunity for progress towards more ambitious circular economy goals. Circular Cities (CC) embrace the principles of the circular economy (CE) by managing resources to minimize waste, maximize efficiency, and promote sustainability. The idea of circular cities is taking hold in the country. This work assesses in a top-down approach CC from a general perspective considering the current state of the art, and then, its application to the Japanese scheme to be contrasted within three particular case studies. CC in Japan represents a holistic and sustainable approach that enhances well-being and the economy by using CE principles. It incorporates Japanese cultural attributes and the necessary stakeholders' involvement to maximize closed loops, reduce resource consumption, and establish a regenerative society. The paper recognizes current progress towards circularity in Japan's cities, towns, and villages, even though they may not call themselves "circular cities" per se. The paper proposes a definition for circular cities specifically for Japan. It analyses three case studies: Kamikatsu, Osaki, and Kitakyushu, urban areas with very different circumstances as examples of circular cities, with the final goal to provide recommendations to policymakers to help increase the circular cities phenomenon.

Circular economy and zero-carbon strategies between Japan and South Korea: A comparative study.

The global population is increasing, as is the demand for basic materials. At the same time, key resources are in short supply, and the extraction and use of raw materials have major environmental implications, for instance, increased CO2 emission. In a Circular Economy (CE), resources and products are divided, leased, reused, repaired, refurbished, and recycled, extending product life cycles, reducing waste, and generating additional value. Government entities in Japan and South Korea are designing and implementing policies to facilitate the transition to a CE and achieve carbon neutrality. The paper compares Japanese policies and actions with those of South Korea, identifies challenges and options for improvements in each country, and lessons that they can share. The paper reviews CE and low carbon policies in the two countries and compares how those, but also public interest and initiatives differ between them. It provides recommendations to address observed shortcomings and capture opportunities to connect CE and zero-carbon strategies. The article is expected to interest Japanese and South Korean policy-makers, companies, and academics.

Forest frontiers out of control: The long-term effects of discourses, policies, and markets on conservation and development of the Brazilian Amazon.

With the Brazilian military governments of the 1960s, systematic economic development of the Amazon began. Social and environmental concerns have entered Amazonian discourses and policies only since the 1990s. Since then, reports of threats to forests and indigenous people have alternated with reports of socio-economic progress and environmental achievements. These contradictions often arise from limited thematic, sectoral, temporal, or spatial perspectives, and lead to misinterpretation. Our paper offers a comprehensive picture of discourses, policies, and socio-environmental dynamics for the entire region over the last five decades. We distinguish eight historical policy phases, each of which had little effect on near-linear dynamics of demographic growth and land-use expansion, although some policies showed the potential to change the course of development. To prevent local, national, and international actors from continuing to assert harmful interests in the region, a coherent long-term commitment and change in the collective mindset are needed.

Frontiers of protected areas versus forest exploitation: Assessing habitat network functionality in 16 case study regions globally.

Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontiers aim at maintaining functional habitat networks. To assess net effects of these frontiers, we examined 16 case study areas on five continents. We (1) mapped protected area instruments, (2) assessed their effectiveness, (3) mapped policy implementation tools, and (4) effects on protected areas originating from their surroundings. Results are given as follows: (1) conservation instruments covered 3-77%, (2) effectiveness of habitat networks depended on representativeness, habitat quality, functional connectivity, resource extraction in protected areas, time for landscape restoration, "paper parks", "fortress conservation", and data access, (3) regulatory policy instruments dominated over economic and informational, (4) negative matrix effects dominated over positive ones (protective forests, buffer zones, inaccessibility), which were restricted to former USSR and Costa Rica. Despite evidence-based knowledge about conservation targets, the importance of spatial segregation of conservation and use, and traditional knowledge, the trajectories for biodiversity conservation were generally negative.

The forest restoration frontier.

Forest restoration has resulted in approximately 300 million ha of restored forests until today. During the second decade of the twenty-first century several international initiatives have sprung up which aim to add 350 million ha of restored forest by 2030. The paper reviews the development of the forest restoration frontier. It tracks trends of the increase of restored forests, emphasizing developments since the second half of the last century. It equally reviews past and ongoing policies, programs, and projects to restore forests. Available data show how the area of restored forests has progressively increased since the 1960s. There are three major objectives to restoring forest: (1) to produce forest products (timber and other products) or spaces for recreation, (2) to produce regulatory ecosystem services (sequestered carbon, erosion control) and (3) to achieve improvement of rural livelihoods. The emphasis on each of these objectives has changed over time and each objective implied different policies and arrangements, involvement of actors and use of technology and know-how. The large international programs and projects since the beginning of the twenty-first century promote forest restoration for biodiversity conservation, regulatory ecosystem services and improving wellbeing of resident populations. Some of the findings related to the development of the forest restoration frontier since the mid-twentieth century suggest that some of the ambitious goals may be unrealistic and result in unwanted outcomes.

New frontiers in Japanese Forest Policy: Addressing ecosystem disservices in the 21st century.

Forests are a potential solution to numerous global environmental issues, and their restoration is widely pursued. Forty percent of Japan's forests are planted forests. This has caused the common occurrence of forest ecosystem disservices in the country, like-wildlife damage, pollinosis, and driftwood damage. Forest policy processes in Japan are characterized by incrementalism, central mobilization, and hegemony of career civil servants. Responses to forest ecosystem disservices have changed the central mobilization policy pattern. Punctuated equilibrium theory can be applied to several policy processes in Japan, but it provides only limited explanation for policy responses to forest ecosystem disservices. The responses are influenced by national governance and public administration traditions and cultures. It is relevant to expand research on policy responses to forest ecosystem disservices, recognizing that ideal responses may require unusual approaches not within traditional policy making or outside of established policy cultures.

Diterpenoid, steroid, and triterpenoid agonists of liver X receptors from diversified terrestrial plants and marine sources.

It has been demonstrated that liver X receptors (LXR) play a significant role in cholesterol homeostasis. Agonists of LXR are expected to increase cellular cholesterol efflux, lower LDL, and raise HDL levels. Screening of a natural product library of plant extracts using a LXR-SPA binding assay and bioassay-guided fractionation of a number of plant and marine gorgonian extracts led to the isolation of a number of active compounds. These included acanthoic acid (1) and alcohol (2), viperidone (3), polycarpol (4), rosacea acid (5), a cycloartane derivative (6), a new cycloartane analogue (7), betulinic acid (8), and gorgostane derivatives (9, 10, and 11). Of these compounds, 1, 4, and 11 exhibited potent binding affinity for alpha-receptor with IC(50) values of 0.25, 0.12, and 0.07 microM, respectively. Functionally they also showed strong coactivator association stimulation for LXRalpha receptor with EC50 values of 0.18, 0.03, and 0.05 microM, respectively. They also exhibited 15-, 8-, and 13-fold induction of the alpha-receptor in a transactivation assay in HEK-293 cells, respectively. In general these compounds were selective for the LXR alpha-receptor over the beta-receptor in all assays and were much better stimulators of the alpha-receptor than the endogenous steroid ligands.