Guy Dresser | Royal Canoe Club - Protestors are trying to block the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organisers from building a canoe slalom course in an historic city park.

More than 13,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Tokyo governor and the Japanese National Olympic Committee not to destroy part of the Kasai Rinkai Park to build a canoe slalom course for the Games.

Protestors claim that development and pollution will see bio-diversity lost at the park.

The Wild Bird Society of Japan submitted a complaint in late August to the Tokyo Metropolitan Governor and Japanese Olympic Committee about plans to use Kasai Rinkai Park for the canoe racing.

Wildlife and animal journalist Eiki Sato wrote to Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose that the Kasai Rinkai Park was intended to rebuild the natural environment of the city.

He claimed that half the park will be lost to the slalom course.

“With the flick of a pen allocating millions in funding, it will destroy the nature that people have worked so hard to take back over 25 years…I’m sure you can easily imagine that the park with a canal and nine-meter-high wall of concrete with a capacity of 10,000 spectators will not look right in this particular location,” he said on his blog.

Doubtless the International Canoe Federation, already battling to ensure the organisers of the 2016 Olympic Games don’t transfer canoe slalom out of Rio de Janeiro to a remote town in Brazil, are already sharpening their pencils.

Related

• ICF to quantify Olympic Canoe Slalom Course Investment‏