is a
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land. Literally,
sato (里) means
arableIn geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes. Arable land covers an area of approximately 12 million square miles...
and livable land or home land, and
yama (山) means mountain.
Satoyama, which have been developed through centuries of small scale agricultural and forestry use, also promise
biodiversityBiodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems...
if properly maintained by human activities.
The concept of
satoyama has several definitions.
is a
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land. Literally,
sato (里) means
arableIn geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes. Arable land covers an area of approximately 12 million square miles...
and livable land or home land, and
yama (山) means mountain.
Satoyama, which have been developed through centuries of small scale agricultural and forestry use, also promise
biodiversityBiodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems...
if properly maintained by human activities.
The concept of
satoyama has several definitions. The first definition is the management of forests through local agricultural communities. During the
Edo, literally: bay-door, "estuary", ), also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
era, young and fallen leaves were gathered from community forests to use as
fertilizerFertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding...
in wet rice paddy fields. Villagers also used wood for construction, cooking and heating. More recently,
satoyama has been defined not only as mixed community forests, but also as entire landscapes that are used for agriculture. According to this definition,
satoyama contains a mosaic of mixed forests,
rice paddy fieldsA paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Rice can also be grown in dry-fields, but from the twentieth century paddy field agriculture became the dominant form of growing rice...
, dry rice fields, grasslands, streams, ponds, and reservoirs for irrigation. Farmers use the grasslands to feed horses and cattle. Streams, ponds, and reservoirs play an important role in adjusting water levels of paddy fields and farming fish as a food source.
Human relationship with Satoyama
Human Population, Ownership, Landuse
Population decline in villages is considered a significant driving factor in the disappearance of
satoyama from Japanese mountains. The depopulation of villages has occurred because of recent economic events from 1955 to 1975, which have created significant social and economic gaps between people in modern cities and mountain villages. Moreover, natural conditions such as steep slope and snowfall have led people to stay away from
satoyama. Regarding ownership, inhabitants in
satoyama determined the shared ownership of common forests near their village in the beginning of 19th century. These forests were logged for economic considerations and the construction of houses. Because people have cut down forests near their village, today we often see old-growth forests, including beech in high elevations far from a village. Inhabitants use the wood from their private forests and conifer plantations for fuel. By the 1960s,
satoyama was utilized as rice fields, plowed fields,
shifting cultivationFor methods, see slash and burnShifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility...
, grasslands, thatch fields,
Secondary forestA secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a major disturbance such as fire, insect infestation, timber harvest or windthrow, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident...
s for fuel, and giant
bambooThe bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some are giant bamboos, the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world...
forests.
Biodiversity in Satoyama
Various habitat types for wildlife have been provided by mixed
satoyama landscape as a result of Japanese traditional agricultural system what also facilitates the movement of wildlife between a variety of habitats. The migration of wild animals can occur among the ponds, rice paddy fields, grasslands, forests, and also from one village to another. Because of these ecosystems, a rich biodiversity in the Japanese rural area has been maintained. Ponds, reservoirs, and streams in particular play a significant role in the survival of water dependent species such as dragonflies, and
firefliesFireflies is a novel by Shiva Naipaul originally published in 1970. It was his first book, a comic novel set in Trinidad. In an essay in An Unfinished Journey, Naipaul described how in 1968 as a final year student at Oxford University studying Chinese, he had been moved to write down a sentence,...
. In early stage of their life cycle, they spend most of their time in water. Through maintaining a mixture of successional stages by the agricultural activities and the management of
satoyama, the preservation and promotion of biodiversity are facilitated. For instance,
Japanese oaksAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 400 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and
Japanese chestnut oaksThe Chestnut oak is a species of oak in the white oak group, Quercus sect. Quercus. It is native to the eastern United States, where it is one of the most important ridgetop trees from southern Maine southwest to central Mississippi, with an outlying northwestern population in southern Michigan...
are planted by farmers to maintain deciduous broad-leaf trees. Succession to dense and dark laurel forest is prevented by farmers that cut down these trees for fuelwood and charcoal every 15 to 20 years. Most plant and animal species are able to live in these deciduous forests because of traditional management practices. Therefore, much more wildlife can be supported by well managed forests than dark unmanaged laurel forests.
Causalities of the disappearing Satoyama
Satoyama has been disappearing due to the drastic shift in natural resources from charcoal and firewood to oil and the change from compost to chemical fertilizer. Also, the problem of aging in Japanese society can cause the disappearance of
satoyama because there are fewer people who can work in
satoyama which are considered as
intermediate disturbanceThe Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis which proposes that biodiversity is highest when disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent. With low disturbance, competitive exclusion by the dominant species arises. With high disturbance, only species tolerant of the...
on forests such as harvesting trees for
timberTimber may refer to:*Lumber, i.e. wood materials* Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Oregon* Timber , a 1984 arcade game by Bally Midway* An alternative spelling for Timbre...
and
charcoalCharcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood, sugar, bone char, or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
, cutting shrubs for
firewoodFirewood is any wood like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....
and collecting
litterLitter is waste that people unlawfully dispose of outdoors. It can be packaging or other unwanted items. Litter can be vandalism, carelessness, or inadvertence. Litter is a form of visual pollution. It can harm health, safety, and welfare...
as
compostCompost is a combination of food material and other organic material that is being decomposed through aerobic decomposition into a rich black soil. The process of composting is simple and practiced by individuals in their homes, farmers on their land, and industrially by cities.Compost soil is...
. These human impacts can help the success of the forest occur. As the final causality of the disappearing of
satoyama, pine dominated secondary forests in
satoyama were increasingly destroyed since pine wilt disease devastated pine forests in the 1970s.
Conservation of Satoyama
Throughout the 80s and 90s, the
satoyama conservation movement was implemented in Japan because people realized that
satoyama were needed to maintain healthy ecosystems. Currently, there are more than 500 environmental groups that work for the conservation of
satoyama. The main challenge for
satoyama conservation today is that depopulation in
satoyama has prevented the harvest of
old growth treesOld-growth forest is a type of forest that has attained great age and so exhibits unique biological features.Old-growth forest typically contains large and old live trees, large dead trees , and...
which can support less biodiversity in
satoyama than
secondary growth forestsA secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a major disturbance such as fire, insect infestation, timber harvest or windthrow, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident...
. To deal with this problem, volunteers from the groups monitor
satoyama to determine when to harvest trees appropriately. They also educate young people to teach how
satoyama is important historically and ecologically and how the conservation of
satoyama should be managed. Because of their efforts,
satoyama has become more prevalent in Japanese landscapes.
Further reading
- Takeuchi, K. & Brown, R.D. & Washitani, I. & Tsunekawa, A. & Yokohari, M., 2008. Satoyama: The Traditional Rural Landscape of Japan Second Edition, Springer. — A comprehensive commentary book of Satoyama, including the conservation. ISBN 4-431-00007-0 978-4431000075
See also
- Beneficial insects
Beneficial insects are any of a number of species of insects that perform valued services like pollination and pest control. The concept of beneficial is subjective and only arises in light of desired outcomes from a human perspective...
- Companion planting
Companion planting is the planting of different crops in close physical proximity , on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity.Although there is a wealth of information on its historic use,...
- Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity , known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international legally binding treaty that was adopted in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992...
- Deforestation
Deforestation is the clearance of naturally occurring forests by the processes of logging and/or burning of trees in a forested area. There are several reasons deforestation occurs: trees or derived charcoal can be sold as a commodity and used by humans, while cleared land is used as pasture,...
- Insect
Insects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
- Relationship to humans
- Land use, land-use change and forestry
"Land use, land-use change and forestry " is defined by the UN Climate Change Secretariat as "A greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use, land-use change and forestry activities."LULUCF has impacts on the...
- Laurel forest
- Masanobu Fukuoka
Masanobu Fukuoka author of The One-Straw Revolution, The Road Back to Nature and The Natural Way Of Farming, was one of the pioneers of no-till grain cultivation...
- Paddy field
A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Rice can also be grown in dry-fields, but from the twentieth century paddy field agriculture became the dominant form of growing rice...
- Temperate deciduous forest
A temperate decidous forest is a biome found in the eastern and western United States, Canada, central Mexico, South America, Europe, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and parts of Russia. A temperate deciduous forest consists of trees that lose their leaves every year...
- Terrace (agriculture)
In agriculture, a terrace is a leveled section of a hill cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance...
- Vermin
Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of disease. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included will vary from area to area and even person to person...
External links
- Participatory Conservation Approaches for Satoyama, the Traditional Forest and Agricultural Landscape of Japan, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment; The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademin is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2 June...
- SATOYAMA Gallery Pictures of satoyama
- NOVA online: Japan's Secret Garden, Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...
- Human Well–Being and the Restoration of Satoyama, United Nations University
The ' which is a United Nations agency, is a think tank for the United Nations and the member states, and was established in Tokyo in 1969 to "research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its agencies"...
- Wildlife in satoyama; The Village Forest Environmental Biology Laboratory (里山と雑木林の生きものたち;里山環境生物学研究所)(In Japanese)
- In the Pines A blog offering an anthropological perspective of satoyama life in Nagano, Japan
- Satoyama in the world through NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization...
web site (In Japanese with photo gallery)
- 世界里山紀行、フィンランド 森・妖精との対話;(World satoyama travel
Travel is the change in location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc...
in FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
, Literally; Forest - Dialog with fairy), NHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization...
- 世界里山紀行、ポーランド 水辺に響きあういのち;(World satoyama travel
Travel is the change in location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc...
in PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Literally; The lives echoing around waterside), NHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization...
- 世界里山紀行、中国・雲南、竹とともに生きる;(World satoyama travel
Travel is the change in location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc...
in YunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers . The capital of the province is Kunming...
, ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Literally; SymbioticThe term symbosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species...
human life with bamboo), NHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization...