Conservation and Restoration of the Environment and Natural Resources, and Condition for the Stabilization of Food Resources in East Asia

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Problems concerned with ensuring the stability of food resources in East Asian countries have some peculiarities comparing to that in other developing countries. Especially, the food demand resulting from increasing population pressure to land (arable land) as well as the rapid economic growth in the region is notable among other associated problems. To the vast population in china (1,300 millions), 500 million tons food grains are produced and consumed every year. This amount is a 100 million tons increase compared with that at the end of the 1970s (reform-period). In addition, the contents of the food demand are also changing a lot due to the rapid economic development and change in per capita income. Such a rapid change in the demand and supply of food tends to be similar in most of the Southeast Asian countries where the food consuming structure is closely related with the economic fluctuation. In the East Asian region too, due to rapid progress of the industrialization and urbaniz … More ation, farmlands that once used for agricultural crop production are being converted to housing and industrial lands, use of water is proportionally increasing, that ultimately making deficit of two basic limited resources (land and water). In this research report, we will describe such a phenomenon appeared notably along the Yellow River valley in China Conventionally, in the arid regions of the central west and north east parts of China, large scale natural disasters such as severe drought and massive floods used to be occurred at intervals of three to ten years. However, the present study shows the generating cycle of a drought and a flood in the said regions has become short in recent years. Simultaneously, uncontrolled water use and its improper management system in the big cities in the downstream region of the Yellow River are making environmental degradation that ultimately have had serious influence also on the food production of China Thailand is another famous agricultural country in the Southeast Asia where foreign affiliated and local shrimp culture projects are getting popular along its large coastal zone. However, although this tendency is helping the country to earn foreign currency more than before, the existing situation is that the destruction of the environmentally friendly mangroves as well as the rate of contamination of the surrounding farmlands and water eventually hampers the production of the rice which is basic crop of the country. Furthermore, in Malaysia where large-scale oil palm gardens are growing by demand increase of the global plant oil and fat, lack in taking care of the biodiversity is making problem to natural ecosystem and environment Al these facts has led the authors to conclude that reconstruction of natural resources and the food system where basic environmental factors could survive symbiotically is a pressing need in East Asia. Less