SATOCHI-SATOYAMA is an area consisting of farmlands, irrigation ponds, secondary forest, plantation forest, and grasslands surrounding human settlements, and is located between more natural, deep mountainous areas and urban areas of intensive human activities. The environment of SATOCHI-SATOYAMA have been formed through various human interventions such as farming and forestry activities over a long history, where people have practiced land use in a dynamic mosaic-like pattern and cyclic resource use (Japanese Ministry of Environment 2010).

Recently, it has been reported that bamboo forests have been invading SATOCHI-SATOYAMA especially in western Japan. It is thought that the biggest cause is the abandonment of bamboo forests due to the changes in industrial systems. Namely, the relationship between local people and SATOCHI-SATOYAMA has been becoming weak year on year.

According to recent studies, the expansions of bamboo forests can damage the ecosystem service from SATOCHI-SATOYAMA, so it is very important to stop the expansion.

In this project at NOGATA-City, in terms of the management of forest resources, we and the NOGATA government office have regularly conducted (a) events for management of bamboo forests by local people, (b) events for regional developments related to bamboo, and (c) workshops for enhancing a communication between different generations. We do hope that this project contributes to a development of local community and resolve the crisis of SATOCHI-SATOYAMA.

[PROJECT MEMBERS]

Keitaro ITO, Takahiro AKASHI(2005-2008), Noriko TAKASHIMA(2007-2009), Tomohiro HOTTA(2008-2010), Kyohei FUJITSUKA(2009-2011), Shun TOMII(2009-2011), Chihiro TAKAHASHI(2010-2012), Takuya MATSUMOTO(2010-2011), Toyoaki HIRAKAWA(2012-2014), Tomomi SUDO(2012-), Maxime CHERREY(2012), Satoru ITO(2013), Yu KAWAZOE(2013-2015), Takahiro NAKAMATSU(2014-), Yurie HANADA(2014-), Kazunori MORIKAWA(2015), Yusuke NAKA(2015), Misaki MORITA(2016), Hinako YASUDA(2016), Masayoshi YAMAMOTO(2016)

[PROJECT PARTNER]

Nogata city

[SPONSORSHIP]

・research category:Grant-in-Aid for challenging Exploratory Research, Research Project Number:14658070, JSPS.

・Nissan Science Foundation(2002)