Siberian Federal University

The seminar was attended by the representatives of Aichi Prefectural University; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Waseda University, Tokyo; Nagoya University.

According to SibFU's rector, Eugene Vaganov, "the idea of a small seminar with a focused topic emerged during a visit to Japan in last Novermber. A common problem to cause everybody's interest was how countries respond to Kyoto protocol's decisions. The Russian side has plenty of evidence, especially on how forests accumulate greenhouse gases. It was quite interesting to discuss the experience of Aichi Prefectural University and Nagoa University on studying global forests. An important advantage of the Japanese attendees was their experience in studying international law and international relations that make the main part of Kyoto protocol".

Kyoto protocol is an important intyernational agreement on climate change and it aims at reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Tadayoshi Takashima, President of Aichi Prefectural University, confirmed the interest of Japanese attendees to studying the field. According to Tadayoshi Takashima, the second stage of the protocol does not include Russian or Japanese participation. However, it does not mean that the countries are no longer responsible for their contribution to fighting global warming. «Another common field uniting the two countries is forest studies. Russia's forests take 60–70% of its territory, Japanese forests take 70% of the area. I think that Russia's current objective should be organizing forest management to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere», — Professor Takashima said.