Brief introduction of Satoyama

Environment has increasingly been threatened not only by human activities but also by progressing
changes in climatic conditions and its associated impacts, it leads an efforts to build a sustainable society
are underway in various parts of the world. One of the important factors in bulding sustainable society is
by understanding of ecological services and how to build ecological landscape that be able to support human
sustainability. However, the relationship between human beings and nature has be come tattered, and today
the relationship threatens to disintegrate altogether. The primary reason for this is the increasing use of
fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers, which has led to a precipitous decline in the use of coppices for
firewood and charcoal as well as for compost. Meanwhile, the aging and diminishing population of rural
areas has made it increasingly difficult to cultivate and maintain paddy field so many of the farmers abandon
their land or even sell it (Takeuchi, 2010).
Relationship between human and environment which is easier to explain as a exploitation has led
to pervasive and frequent changes of ecosystem especially in land use and land cover (Alphan, 2003;
Booth, 2009). Change in ecosystem especially in iand-use and land-cover is an important factor in
environmental change, which in turn could contribute to global climate change (Turner et al., 1994; Lambin
and Geist, 2001). To prevent a side effect from massive human activities that be able to change ecosystem,
some countries improve their perspective about land management with a different approach. One of that
country is Japan, land cover in Japan, roughly 67% of the total area of the country is hilly or mountainous
area with forest. One of the traditional and sustainable land cover which is widely spread is rural landscapes,
or satoyama landscapes, this is social and ecological networks of a village and its surroundings, which
include agricultural lands, open forestlands and forests, and which have maintained a high diversity of
plants, insects and small-to-medium-sized animals (e.g., Tabata et al., 1997 in Fukamachi et al., 2001).
Although this term does not have a specific definition, satoyama closely resembles the concept
of countryside in that it conjures up idyllic images of rural agricultural landscapes. For non-Japanese
speakers, a helpful explanation of this term comes from nature photographer Mitsuhiko Imamori, who
describes satoyama as a traditional form of the agricultural environment where sato (village/people) and
yama (mountain/nature) coexist side by side in harmony (Imamori, 1995).
Meanwhile, there is a slight different between satoyama and satoyama landscape. In general,
satoyama landscape is used to reference agricultural landscapes as a holistic set of interlinked units:
settlements, rice paddies, agricultural fields, bamboo forests, woodlands, and grasslands. In contrast,
satoyama is normally used in a more restrictive sense to refer to the secondary woodland portion of these
landscapes (Fukamachi et al. 2001; Takeuchi 2003). As shown in the figure, satoyama landscape indicates
the rural landscape that is comprised of satoyama, farmlands, settlements, and reservoirs, because these
elements were once strongly connected to each other through the agricultural land use system.

Schematic representation of Satoyama and Satoyama landscape (Yamamoto 2001, from Takeuchi 2003,
by courtesy of Yamamoto and Takeuchi)

The satoyama landscape is highly valued because it provides a diversity of ecosystem services.
According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) conducted by the United Nations from 2001
to 2005, biodiversity provides many such ecosystem services. These are categorized into provisioning
services (e.g., provision of food and fuel), regulating services (e.g., regulation of climate and water), cultural
services (e.g., spiritual and aesthetic values), and supporting services (e.g., water cycling and soil formation).
Satoyama landscape itself have different advantage and goal if we see it from different perspective, the
satoyama landscape goal is conservation of species diversity, support an ecosystem, an aesthetically
pleasing landscape, and the maintain a traditional culture. Meanwhile, the social goal is to provide new
outdoor recreational opportunities, enhanced quality of life, construction of networks, and establishment of
local autonomy (Takeuchi, 2003).
In conclusion, satoyamas main concept is about mutual relationship between human and nature,
satoyama landscapes contain nature that is maintained through its use and management by the local human
population. Because of satoyama landscape is really dependent on human activites, the principle of
environmental carrying capacity applies without exception. Overuse of resources and spatial limitations
because of human activites result in less biodiversity, as well as resource exhaustion, such as the mountain
landscapes in the Kansai region, which have been denuded as a result of the overuse of woodland resources
over time. Resource extraction should not exceed carrying capacity when managing natural resources in a
sustainable manner (Takeuchi et al., 2003). This harmonious interactions shaped in such areas have created
complex mosaics of different land use types, and contributed to both human well-being and environmental
sustainability (IPSI, 2010).

Satoyama Initiative and Sustainable Development

In 1987, World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) introduced the term of
sustainable development. It was written on Our Common Future, also known as The Brundtland Report,
describes sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present generation without
compromising the needs of future generations (WCED, 1987). It is usually presented as the intersection
between environment, society and economy, which are conceived of as separate although connected entities
(Giddings et al., 2002). Many researchers from Japan stated that the term of sustainable development is
strongly related to the concept of satoyama. Yoshida (2012) as cited in Dublin and Tanaka (2014) pointed
out because Satoyama is largely agriculturally based, we believe that it is very useful for attaining
sustainable development through agriculture especially if the community is mainly dependent on this
sector.
Understanding that satoyama plays an important role in support sustainable development leads the
Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ) and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced
Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS: formerly the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies)
jointly initiated the Satoyama Initiative. This international effort promotes activities consistent with existing
fundamental principles including the Ecosystem Approach. International Partnership for Satoyama
Initiative (IPSI) was established in 2010 in order to undertake and facilitate a broad range of activities to
implement the concepts of the Satoyama Initiative by diverse stakeholders.
The satoyama concept is characterized by multi-functionality, in which social and economic
dimensions rather than ecological dimensions, dominate. As a socio-ecological construct, satoyama should
be able to implement in various condition. The construction and quality of satoyama landscape will depend
on the existence of decent ecological knowledge to support the management decisions fitted to respond to
community needs. In other words, satoyama is implementable for every places in the world as long as the
social system has a decent ecological knowledge to manage the satoyama landscape. Ultimately, there is
hope that the satoyama concept can be replicated elsewhere, so that land management can be tailored to the
needs and capacities of the ecosystems and the communities that depend on them (Indrawan et al., 2014).
 In Indonesia, interaction between human and their environment already stable over a long time.
Based on local knowledge and practices, the interaction accumulated in production activities and their
management mechanisms, this action has created elaborate systems that continue to support local
communities by providing foods, fuel, other materials and also maintaining ecosystem and biodiversity.
However, the interaction have been increasingly threatened by rapid socio-economic changes in recent
years. Increasing economic and population growth in Indonesia has increased the demand for better land
management to support our sustainability and satoyama landscape could be considered as one of the option.
Therefore, it is important to explore ways and means for using and managing natural resources sustainably
that benefit current and future generations.

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