Satoyama

Satoyama (里山) is a Japanese term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land.

[1] During the Edo era, young and fallen leaves were gathered from community forests to use as fertilizer in wet rice paddy fields.

Streams, ponds, and reservoirs play an important role in adjusting water levels of paddy fields and farming fish as a food source.

Ponds, reservoirs, and streams in particular play a significant role in the survival of water dependent species such as dragonflies, and fireflies.

[4] 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.

[5] 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.

For example, the species Niphanda fusca, a butterfly that can be found in satoyama landscapes, has become endangered partly due to the degradation of this ecosystem.

[11] The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative was also launched at the same CBD COP meeting and taken note of in the Decision as " one mechanism to carry out activities identified by the Satoyama Initiative including collecting and analysing case-studies, distilling lessons, and promoting research on different practices of sustainable use of biological resources, as well as increasing awareness and supporting on-the-ground projects and activities in human-influenced natural environments".