On 5 October 2025, as part of the KANAZAWA SDGs Festa event held at Kanazawa City Hall Annex, “Urban Wildlife Tour” took place in the garden of Oyama Shrine. This event was co-organized by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK) and Kanazawa City, aiming to encourage citizens to appreciate the city’s nature and wildlife.
In the first half of the tour, UNU-IAS OUIK Research Fellow Dr. Juan Pastor-Ivars delivered a lecture on the ecological value of Kanazawa’s gardens. Drawing on his ongoing biodiversity survey of the city’s gardens, he explained the important role these gardens play in maintaining the urban ecosystem network.
“Kanazawa’s gardens are uniquely designed, making use of the castle town’s waterways. Water edges, artificial hills and plantings come together to create microhabitats for a wide range of living creatures. These environments also serve as vital refuges for species that are losing ground due to urbanization,” he stated.
During the observation tour, participants explored the garden’s wildlife with the help of the “iNaturalist” smartphone app. Despite the rain, they found nails, spiders, pill bugs, and slugs under wet leaves and around small artificial hills. Various types of mushrooms and plants were also spotted. Participants took pictures of the creatures they found, identified them using the app and shared their observation data.
An expert assisting the tour noted that long-standing gardens like those in Kanazawa are sometimes home to rare species classified as endangered. These gardens serve not only as scenic assets but also as “small ecosystems” that sustain precious forms of life.
By the end of the tour, participants came to a shared realization – “gardens are not just landscapes, but also habitats for living creatures”. The experience offered a moment to reflect on the meaning of coexisting with nature in the city.
This tour is part of an initiative to re-examine the urban nature environment from the perspective of interconnected gardens, water system and living creatures, using Kanazawa as our field. In collaboration with local residents, UNU-IAS OUIK will continue to explore the vision of a ‘city where people and nature coexist’.
