Niche Markets for Economic Revitalisation of Satoyama Forest ...

Executive Summary
Japan, a chain of islands with a national population of about 127.5 million (July
2007 est.) and total area of 377,835 square kilometers, has only about 12 per
cent arable land. Due to its geographical coordinates in Asia (36.00 N, 138.00 E),
Japan has historically experienced extreme climatic conditions which include
earthquakes, torrential rainfall, floods, windstorms, and heat–waves. To survive
these types of harsh conditions and produce enough food for the population,
the Japanese people had to find innovative ways by which to maximise land
use and conserve the quantity as well as the quality of available land, forest
resources, water, wetlands, and built–up infrastructure.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, long before Japan became one of the most
industrialised nations in the world, part of the innovation involved a careful
and integrated use, maintenance and management of scarce community–
based ecosystem resources which supported human well–being in both rural
and urban communities. The generic Japanese term for the centuries–old
practices which ensured a sustainable coexistence of people and nature is
satoyama.
After World War II, as Japan’s industrialisation and urbanisation processes
intensified, an unprecedented rural–urban population migration occurred,
the proportion of the population which lived in rural areas fell from 82 per
cent in 1920 to about 21 per cent in the year 2000. Similarly, the proportion
of the population actively engaged in agriculture fell from about 52 per cent
in 1920 to about 6 per cent in 1977. One of the ramifications of these and
other major transitions was that most satoyama ecosystem resources became
underutilised or simply abandoned, leading to the degradation of biodiversity,
loss of some of the ecosystem services, and decline or loss of economic value
to the local communities.
The last fifteen years has witnessed a renewed interest across Japan among
scientists, policy makers, business community, and environmental activists in
reviving the satoyama sector to harness its potential economic contributions.
Since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) report
in 2005, scholars have shown a strong interest in examining more closely the
types of ecosystem services which the satoyama sector provided, the factors
that led to the economic decline and current uncertainty of the sector, the
multiscale issues facing the sector now, and what needs to be done to revitalise
it. These objectives have become even more pressing now as the world seeks
to address a global energy crisis by taking effective actions at the local level.
This paper examines the satoyama forest resources in Ishikawa Prefecture of
Japan, identifies and discusses some of the emerging niche markets taking
advantage of some of the ecosystem services, stakeholders leading these
initiatives, and the policy environment across the scales (prefectural, national,
and Asia regional) which has hurt or helped the ecosystem services being
examined.
The Introduction section reviews a conceptual problem of satoyama in general,
drawing from various perspectives in the literature and proposing a working
definition. This section also presents a general profile of the forest resources
in Ishikawa Prefecture and the satoyama forest resources within that context,
and some of the recent developments in the sector.
The first chapter identifies the various niche markets—essentially, initiatives
led by private sector stakeholders aimed at utilising satoyama forest resources
in a sustainable manner within the Ishikawa Prefecture. The paper examines
four potential niche markets through which the satoyama forest sector could
be revitalised in the prefecture.
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