Osaka Residents Work Together for 'Satoyama' Conservation

The Osaka Green Trust Organization is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 to promote tree planting and forest management in Osaka Prefecture. Its wide variety of activities include a National Trust campaign to protect beech forests and other precious natural sites, the conservation of "satoyama" (see note), and fundraising.

Among its satoyama conservation projects, one in the Kurumatsukuri-no-mori forest in Ibaraki City is unique, and local residents are participating actively. The Osaka Green Trust Organization, its volunteers, and the local people set up a council and have been working together to conserve the forest.

In this woodland, Lycoris sanguinea, a species of spiderlily, grows in clusters. The organization holds events to study and enjoy its flowers blossoming all around the valley in summer, attracting many people. In addition, a hand-made charcoal kiln is used to produce charcoal for soil improvement in a row of cherry trees. More and more youth find the project in this area fascinating and are joining the activities.

The organization aims to bring city dwellers into greater contact with the satoyama lifestyle through the conservation of satoyama, in the wider sense of the word, including rice paddies and other farmlands as well as coppice forests, and giving more people an opportunity to enjoy a day in a satoyama environment. The group also seeks to use wood and charcoal as renewable biomass resources.


Note: The Japanese word "satoyama" means an agricultural area located between human settlements and hilly areas, where the ecosystem has been managed and maintained by the local community. The methods used are in harmony with nature and support biodiversity. A typical satoyama is mainly composed of planted coppice forests around villages, together with rice fields, other agricultural plots, water reservoirs, and grasslands, etc. Many coppice forests were poorly managed in Japan for the half-century after the country's main energy source shifted from firewood to petroleum, thus leading to biodiversity loss.




Posted: 2004/05/08 10:10:06 AM
Japanese version