On March 30, the Ministry of the Environment upgraded the Akkeshi Prefectural Natural Park (in Akkeshi, Kushiro and Hamanaka in the Kushiro region of eastern Hokkaido) to a quasi-national park, and designated it the Akkeshi Kiritappu Kombumori Quasi-National Park. This is the 6th site to be designated a quasi-national park in Hokkaido, after the designation of the Shokanbetsu-Teuri-Yagishiri Quasi-National Park in 1990, and the 58th in the whole of Japan.

　In a Hokkaido Shimbun Press interview on March 26, the Minister of the Environment, Koizumi Shinjiro said “The long name comes from the strong will of the people of each region, who wanted it naming this way. It’s good that it’s such a pleasing name. I hope that people from all around Hokkaido and beyond will enjoy one of the most prominent wetlands in the country, along with rare waterfowl and magnificent landscapes.”

　The area designated as the quasi-national park is the current prefectural natural park plus the adjacent Bekanbeushi Wetland (Akkeshi and Shibecha), Poroto Marsh in the town of Hamanaka and Kitoushi in the town of Kushiro, and totals 41,487 hectares – almost twice the area of the prefectural natural park.