Niche Markets for Economic Revitalisation of Satoyama Forest ...

Foreword
Satoyama has always provided food, charcoal and wood for fuel, compost,
water and timber in addition to its roles as pool for plant and animal species
and a dwelling ground for humans. These are services that satoyama has been
providing to Japan for many centuries, which benefited many people living in
and beyond the satoyama setting.
However, since the 1950s, when Japan began to undergo social, economic
and technological changes, satoyama began to change, too. For instance,
the advancement in science and technology that gave rise to the production
of fossil fuels and their extensive use killed off or reduced the century old
practice of wood gathering from satoyama for charcoal and other sources of
energy. This particular change can be attributed to policy priorities and shifts
in consumption patterns for energy. With the decline in the value of some
of the resources of satoyama it began to face abandonment leading to other
problems such as overgrowth.
The change in satoyama and the declining value, however, does not mean that
satoyama is an area without resources or value. There are resources within
satoyama that still have the potential of being developed to revitalise the
value it once possessed. Innovative ways are needed to revitalise the value
of satoyama and the resources that exist in it. One such resource is its forest
resources. Japan’s forest cover has increased since the 1960s and it accounts
for over 60 per cent of Japan’s total landmass. Given the huge forested areas
on one hand and the changes in policy and consumption patterns on the other,
which are sometime unavoidable, a link between the trends and the resources
of satoyama is deemed necessary to revitalise the value of satoyama. One
such potential is to explore the links that the market opportunities can offer
for satoyama forests.
This report highlights some foreseeable opportunities for consideration
to boost the economic value of satoyama but at the same time trigger
interaction for continued management of satoyama so that its ecological,
cultural, and social aspects are retained in entirety. Some of the specific areas
of potential addressed in this paper include the commercialisation of wood
block method and technology, bio–energy, enhancement of carbon sinks and
carbon markets, and ecotourism.
The paper discusses some of these issues above with a specific focus on
Ishikawa Prefecture and some general references on Japan as a whole. We do
not expect this report to be representative of the situation in Japan, but it is
our intention to introduce to the reader some of the issues affecting satoyama
and the opportunities and challenges.
The Ishikawa International Cooperation Research Centre (IICRC) is committed
to working on issues that face the local region with an intention to link the
local region to the national and international levels.
Alphonse Kambu
Director, IICRC, UNU–IAS Special Programme
April 2008
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