Our Projects
Project for a Network of botanical gardens in afghanistan
The Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan (AFP) was launched in 2003 by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), providing training during its fifteen year span to an estimated 600 mid- to senior-level Afghan professionals, now part of a larger international community focused on their country’s development. The AFP completed its last cycle in early 2019. In order to cement the many legacies of this unique program the original core team and faculty have rallied around the Afghan Fellowship Legacy Project, consisting of two independent but related initiatives, to be launched and completed over a 4-year period (2019 to 2023). One of these is the plan to mobilize the AFP alumni network for the creation of a series of botanical gardens in Afghanistan, starting with the city of Herat.
Since 2011, Green Legacy Hiroshima (GLH ) has been spreading the seeds and saplings of trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The initiative, now in some 37 countries and working for the most part with botanical gardens and universities, is voluntary and benefits from in-kind support by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), ANT-Hiroshima, Hiroshima Botanical Garden, Hiroshima City, Mayors for Peace and many other entities around the planet. Global partners receive seeds and saplings after a screening process, with each potential partner committing to the long-term care of the saplings and their message of peace.
Through the help of the AFP, Afghanistan was one of the first countries to receive seeds and saplings from GLH. However the absence of a strong botanical garden, or a network of botanical gardens, dedicated to studying, experimenting with and recording plant life has stymied the best efforts of GLH and its partners within AFP. The aim now is to address this lacuna at its foundation, and in the process create a model that could have immense positive benefits, by helping establish botanical garden(s) in Afghanistan. The AFP network is still strong, and local support, including through dedicated government officials and universities, will be forthcoming. The initiative will build on the experiences of and support of this and other GLH alumni networks, architects and botanists in Afghanistan, Japan and other regions. With the help of its partner institution(s) it will design prototypes for low-cost and sustainable garden and built elements—providing a platform for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and funding about the building and maintenance of botanical gardens.
Most of this work will be done locally—but the selection and design process will also be supported by a Japanese/international network of architects, botanists and landscape designers. Models that have relevance to Afghanistan’s particular ecosystem will be studied. Knowledge-sharing, as well as the ecological and economical aspects of such a project will be significant and life-sustaining, and meet many of the objectives of Afghanistan’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Dignified Pacific Initiative (DPI)
The goal of the Dignified Pacific Initiative (DPI) is to empower communities in the Pacific region as well as other developing countries with similar situations, to re-articulate the role and value of their cultural and natural resources as contributions towards global prosperity. This initiative currently serves as a resource for the public to learn more about Gross National Generosity (GNG) and development issues in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs).
It is intended to grow into a foundation in Japan to introduce the Pacific values of reciprocity and generosity globally with a vision of strengthening the contemporary and socioeconomic system worldwide. The framework is designed to articulate what ODA receiving countries could contribute to attaining the SDGs (Global Needs) from what they possess, and at the same time preserve these global resources for future generations. Restoring the balance would require resource providers to ensure the sustainability of resources, and for resource users to support resource providers in conservation of these resources through inclusive innovation and sustainable consumption.
DPI is searching to join forces with common interest projects, researchers and individuals to join us in this work of examining how global prosperity could be realized over creative integrations of our innovative contributions for our common good. One of the visions for this initiative is to reunite the PICs using their common concept of generosity to grow and develop together, as responsible and respected resource custodians for the world, and not for the benefit of a few wealthy nations.
Sri lanka-Japan collaborative Platform (SL-Jcp)
More Information Coming Soon.