Employee-Volunteer Handmade Ecosystem 'Biotope' Conducts Creature Survey with Children in Yatabe, Tsukuba City

The 'Biotope Watch Team,' a group of employee volunteers from the Pal System Consumers' Cooperative Union (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Chairman: Shibusawa Haruyuki), held a creature observation event on Saturday, May 30th, at a 'biotope' ecosystem created in a rice paddy in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. This initiative aims to demonstrate the biodiversity generated by rice farming that does not rely on agricultural chemicals, in line with the 'Symbiotic Society with Nature' goal set forth in Pal System's environmental and energy policy.

Discovery of Water Striders and Diving Beetles

The biotope where the creature survey was conducted was created by employee volunteers in March 2025 in a rice paddy in Yatabe, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The land was rented from the NPO 'Satoyama Regeneration and Food Safety Association' (Tsukuba City, Ibaraki; Representative: Takashi Iizumi). It is part of a rice paddy where employees of the Pal System group and related organizations, including business partners, engage in volunteer farming activities. This handmade ecosystem was created by digging up soil with heavy machinery, laying down vinyl sheets, and channeling water from the rice paddy.

The survey was conducted in conjunction with a rice planting event that saw approximately 40 participants. Employees and children, who experienced rice planting barefoot in the paddy, surveyed the creatures inhabiting the area. Inside the biotope, a variety of creatures, including water striders, diving beetles, and tadpoles, were confirmed to have gathered, drawn by the water channeled from the paddy and the surrounding environment.

A Biotope Aiming for Firefly-Dotted Landscapes

After rice planting, a process called 'nakaboshi' (mid-season drainage) is necessary, where the paddy is temporarily drained to allow the rice roots to strengthen. To ensure that aquatic creatures like loaches, dragonfly larvae (yago), and tadpoles, which come from the waterways around the paddy, do not lose their habitat, they are channeled into the biotope, thereby maintaining the ecosystem. Eventually, a habitat for fish forms within the biotope, fostering biodiversity as creatures grow into dragonflies and frogs.

In the areas surrounding the volunteer-farmed rice paddies, fireflies (Heike botaru) can be seen dancing from July to August. If the biotope becomes home to marsh snails, which serve as food for fireflies, it might be possible to see fireflies dancing over the biotope and the volunteer-farmed paddies as well. The team will continue its surveys, aiming for a biotope where diverse creatures live and fireflies visit, stemming from rice paddies farmed without synthetic chemical pesticides.

Communicating the Significance of Environmentally Conscious Agriculture to Employees

The 'Biotope Watch Team' was launched using the 'Pal System Collective,' a voluntary employee activity system that the Pal System Union started in the 2024 fiscal year. Employees from different departments work together to realize the 'Pal System 2030 Vision' of 'Creating communities where we live together by 'eating,' 'creating,' and 'supporting each other.'

The 'Biotope Watch Team' consists of five members from various departments, aiming to deepen the understanding of employees outside the directly responsible department regarding the significance of the rice paddy creature surveys that Pal System has been conducting with production areas since 2004.

In the production areas with which Pal System has direct partnerships, it promotes environmentally conscious agriculture that relies as little as possible on agricultural chemicals. The creature surveys are conducted to visualize the significance of agriculture that protects biodiversity in production areas. By having employees from diverse departments experience the surveys and watch over the biotope, Pal System aims to expand the circle of its environmental conservation activities.

Pal System will continue to support sustainable Japanese agriculture together with its users, employees, and production areas.