Satoyama (里山?) is a Japanese
term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable
flat land. Literally, sato (里) means arable
and livable
land or home land, and yama (山) means hill
or mountain. Satoyama have been developed through centuries of small scale
agricultural and forestry use.
The concept of satoyama has several definitions. The first
definition is the management of forests through local agricultural communities.
During the Edo era,
young and fallen leaves were gathered from community forests to use as fertilizer
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
fields, 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.
Population, ownership, and land use
Population decline in villages has been a significant
driving factor in the disappearance of satoyama from the Japanese landscape.
Economic growth from 1955 to 1975 created significant social and economic gaps
between cities and villages and led to the depopulation of mountain villages,
where life was made difficult by natural conditions such as steep slopes,
landslides, and snowfall. Ownership patterns have also been a factor. Shared
ownership of satoyama forests near villages has been common since the beginning
of the 19th century. These forests were logged for economic considerations and
the construction of houses. Because forests near villages have been cut down,
old-growth forests today (including beech forests at high elevations) are often
located far from villages. Inhabitants use wood from their private forests and conifer
plantations for fuel. By the 1960s, satoyama were utilized as rice fields,
plowed fields, shifting cultivation, grasslands,
thatch fields, secondary
forests for fuel, and giant bamboo forests.
Biodiversity
Various habitat types for wildlife have been provided by
mixed satoyama landscape as a result of the Japanese traditional agricultural system that
also facilitates the movement of wildlife between a variety of habitats. The
migration of wild animals can occur between ponds, rice paddies, grasslands,
forests, and also from one village to another. Ponds, reservoirs, and streams
in particular play a significant role in the survival of water dependent
species such as dragonflies, and fireflies. In the
early stages of their life cycle, they spend most of their time in water.
Deciduous oaks such as Quercus acutissima and Quercus serrata are
planted by farmers to maintain deciduous broad-leaf trees.[3]
Succession to dense and dark laurel forest is prevented by farmers that cut
down these trees for firewood and charcoal every 15 to 20 years. Many plant and
animal species are able to live in these deciduous forests because of
traditional management practices.
Causalities of the disappearance
Satoyama have 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 disturbance on
forests such as harvesting trees for timber and charcoal,
cutting shrubs for firewood and collecting litter as compost. 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
Throughout the 80s and 90s, the satoyama conservation
movement was implemented in Japan. As of 2001, there are more than 500
environmental groups that work for the conservation of satoyama. Because of
their efforts, satoyama has become more prevalent in Japanese landscapes.
In popular culture
The satoyama of Saitama Prefecture have been illustrated in
anime with great precision and artistic attention to detail in the very popular
film, My Neighbor Totoro, by Studio
Ghibli, under the direction of the studio's head and founder, Hayao
Miyazaki. The prominence of the satoyama as environment for the story has
stirred popular interest in the regions, and encouraged conservation efforts in
recent times, in large part thanks to this film.
David Attenborough also narrated a one-hour
program called Satoyama for NHK in 2004.
The Japanese idol company Hello!
Project Launched a new show called Hello! SATOYAMA Life. Hello! SATOYAMA
Life is a TV show showcasing the members of Hello! Project, including Morning
Musume, Berryz Koubou, ℃-ute,
Mano Erina,
S/mileage,
and Mitsui
Aika. Unlike Hello! Pro TIME, Hello! SATOYAMA Life is based on agriculture
and nature. Different girls are selected to take a camera around and film
various topics about agriculture and nature. The show is aired on TV Tokyo.
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