Encouraging People to Develop Skills Needed for Environmental Protection―Sompo Environment Foundation
Sompo Environment Foundation, based on its philosophy of “Fostering people who plant trees,” supports education,
capacity building, action and research in conservation and other environmental fields with the goal of contributing
to global environmental protection.
The foundation, working with the Japan Environmental Education Forum, a national NGO consisting of varieties of people who are engaged or interested in promoting environmental education, and Sompo Japan, organizes a series of Public Seminars on the Environment, held on the themes of SDGs and sustainability, that have attracted more than 29,300 participants since the program’s start in 1993 (as of March 2022). Starting in fiscal year 2020, the seminar was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent seminar attracted 2,697 participants from all over Japan. The foundation also shared a recording of the seminar, which was viewed by a total of 3,059 people (this figure includes people who also joined the seminar in real time).
Its CSO*1 Learning Scholarship Program, meanwhile, is an eight-month internship program for undergraduate
and graduate students desiring working experience at an environmental organization. As of March 31, 2022, the program has given 1,225 students opportunities to learn about environmental issues and civil society at 79 organizations. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, online meetings and remote work were adopted to ensure the program continued without interruption. In February 2019, the program was launched in Jakarta, Indonesia, and to date, a total of 58 students have completed the program. The fourth session started in February 2022.
- Civil Society Organization
The Japan-Indonesia exchange meeting on the CSO Learning Scholarship Program held in October 2020
In addition, since 1999 the foundation has awarded grants for environmental conservation projects to support CSOs working on environmental issues. Moreover, since 2001 the foundation has provided academic research funding for graduate students’ costs of writing PhD papers, to support outstanding young researchers who are inspired to write on environmental themes.
