Paddy Water Environ (2005) 3: 249–250DOI 10.1007/s10333-005-0020-8

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Yohei Sato

Progress of PAWEES: Past, Present, and Future of Paddy and WaterEnvironment Engineering

Received: 1 September 2005 / Accepted: 27 September 2005 / Published online: 29 November 2005C© Springer-Verlag 2005

The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) de-clared 2004 as the International Year of Rice with the slo-gan “Rice is Life.” This is an extraordinary focus for asingle crop to acquire such international recognition. Asrice is a staple food for majority of developing countries,especially in Asia, it acknowledges the importance of ricelinked to food security and poverty alleviation and alsothe significance of its management and development forour society and the natural environment. The establishmentof the International Society of Paddy and Water Environ-ment Engineering (PAWEES) is initiated from the sameacknowledgement by scientists and engineers in the Asianregion.

Since its establishment, the Society has achieved someshort-term goals and progressed beyond. At present, themembers of the Society have expanded to nearly 15,000,including scientists and engineers from a variety of uni-versities, government agencies, and private sectors. Theofficial international journal of PAWEES is Paddy and Wa-ter Environment (PWE), being published periodically asplanned, and the number of manuscript submissions fromnon-Asian regions has been increasing. This is an indica-tion of a successful recognition of PWE journal outsideof Asia. Because of its rapid popularity and advancement,many international organizations such as FAO, World Bank,IWMI, and IRRI are giving great attention to this uniquepublication.

The Society has enhanced to establish professional rela-tionships with other international/regional societies and or-ganizations in similar fields in order to implement commonactions of mutual interests for sharing the latest informa-tion and knowledge related to paddy and water environmentengineering. The following is the list of major activitiesthat the Society has been involved in till the time of thissession:

Y. SatoPresident, The National Institute for Agro-EnvironmentalSciences, 3-1-3 Kannondai,Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8604, Japane-mail: yoheis@niaes.affrc.go.jp

1. March 2003: Co-Sponsored four sub-sessions of the ses-sion “Agriculture, Food, and Water” in the 3rd WorldWater Forum, held in Kyoto, Japan.

2. March 2003: Co-Sponsored the 2nd International Con-ference on Educational Accreditation System and APECEngineers Project for Agricultural Engineers in PaddyFarming Regions, in Kyoto, Japan.

3. March 2003: Organized the 1st PAWEES Award Cere-mony for the PAWEES International Award, in Kyoto,Japan.

4. July 2003: Participated to the Workshop on InternationalConsortium “Paddy and Water Environment Network”,in Tokyo, Japan.

5. July 2003: Organized a session in the JSIDRE AnnualMeeting, in Okinawa, Japan.

6. December 2003: Co-Sponsored of the 3rd InternationalColloquium on LUCC, Bogor, Indonesia.

7. February 2004: Participated in the Preparatory Meetingon International Network for Water and Ecosystem inPaddy Fields (INWEPF), in Tokyo, Japan.

In these activities, it should be noted that the JapaneseMinistry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF)launched INWEPF in February 2004 for promoting a worldnetwork in research and practice related to paddy rice fieldsystems. The Society has mutual interests with INWEPF inprinciple and is expected to contribute significantly to theactivities of INWEPF.

The Society has been provided significant support bymany individuals. A noteworthy example is a significantcontribution by Dr. Toshio Sawada, Former President ofthe Kyoto University, and Dr. Yohei Sato, Past Presidentof PAWEES. They voluntarily donated quite handsomemoney to the Society for its development in March 2004and April 2005, respectively. This is due to their under-standing of the importance of globalization in the expertiseof paddy and water environment engineering. The Societyis planning to establish new awards in their name in honorof their great contributions. Dr. Koichi Tokunaga, ProfessorEmeritus of the Iwate University and Dr. Mutsumi Kadoya,

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Professor Emeritus of the Kyoto University donated alsosome amount of money to the Society.

The Society’s activities for the rest of 2004 and the yearof 2005 are as follows:

8. September 2004: Organized a session in the JSIDREAnnual Meeting, in Sapporo, Japan.

9. October 2004: Co-Sponsored the 7th Inter-RegionalConference on Environment Water in Beijing, China.

10. October 2004: Co-Sponsored the 3rd International Con-ference on Educational Accreditation System and APECEngineers Project for Agricultural Engineers in PaddyFarming Regions in Ansan, Korea.

11. October 2004: Organized the 2nd PAWEES Award Cer-emony for the PAWEES International, Paper, and Re-viewer Awards in Ansan, Korea.

12. November 2004: Co-Sponsored the 1st INWEPF Con-ference, Tokyo, Japan.

13. January 2005: Co-organized a session “Disaster pre-vention functions in rural areas and Disaster re-sistant sustainable livelihoods” in the World Con-ference on Disaster Reduction, in Kobe, Hyogo,Japan.

14. September 2005: Organized the International Confer-ence on Management of Paddy and Water Environmentfor Sustainable Rice Production in Kyoto, Japan, ca.130 participants from 28 countries and regions, and fourinternational organizations.

15. November 2005: Co-Sponsored the 4th InternationalConference on Educational Accreditation System andAPEC Engineers Project for Agricultural Engineers inPaddy Farming Regions in Taipei, Taiwan.

16. November 2005: Organized the 3rd PAWEES AwardCeremony for the PAWEES International, Paper, andReviewer Awards in Taipei, Taiwan.

At the moment, PAWEES has been well executed andobserved considerable progress. It is worth noting thatPAWEES was recommended to become a Liaison Mem-ber of the CIGR (the International Commission of Agri-cultural Engineering) Section I Board (Land and WaterEngineering) and approved at the General Assembly ofCIGR in Beijing, China in 2004. The future prospects ofthe Society includes more efforts to increase its member-ship, increasing the presence of the Society in the inter-national community, developing strong relationship withother countries that have not been actively involved in thecommon and unique mission of the Society, and initiatinga leadership role in research and professional activities thatpotentially contribute to the advancement of its discipline.It is also very important, as one of the founding membersand main countries for its execution, to have a strong sup-port from Japanese scientists and engineers involved in therelated fields for the strong and sustainable development ofPAWEES with pace.