Satoyama Reconnections: Engaging communities in collective action for resilient, nature- and climate-positive land use futures

Convened by Janet Dwyer, Chris Short, and Lois Mansfield

CCRI University of Gloucestershire

Rationale and aims for the session

In many developed economies, fragmentation of goals and drivers for land use linked to the pursuit of commodity production and higher financial returns has engendered a fracturing of former longstanding interdependencies between people and nature, contributing to significant environmental damage. Satoyama, as promoted by the IPSI partnership, highlights the importance of recognising and working with the longstanding cultures and knowledge of land management and people-nature interdependencies within rural communities, in order to repair such damage, to sustain biodiversity and better address the climate emergency. This panel aims to highlight and examine the options for enhanced land-use governance/ownership and stewardship of cultural landscapes, now and into the future, by mobilising such collective approaches in rural territories. This can be achieved through identification and creation of different legal, institutional, socio-economic, political and market-linked mechanisms, co-developed with local people and other sources of knowledge and expertise. The session will aim, through presentations and panel discussion, to bring together existing insights from contrasting but connected case studies in Japan and Europe, to help identify common criteria for promoting and facilitating sustainable land use futures.

The format will be four presentations showcasing ideas and examples in UK, Europe and Japan, followed by a panel discussion including researchers in Satoyama and cultural landscape engagement and co-management, to exchange views and ideas with all participants.

Presentations:

1. Satoyama reconnections – framing the challenges, scoping the opportunities

Chris Short, Lois Mansfield and Janet Dwyer, CCRI, University of Gloucestershire, UK

2. Dancing and farming into the community: gaining trust and understanding commons management issues in Sado island

Jasmine Black, UNU / Tokyo University, Japan

3. Bring down the sky to the Earth – learning from living labs on climate change in Swedish forest landscapes

Camilla Sandstrom, University of Umea, Sweden

4. Landscape renewal through community value-added approaches

Mai Kobayashi, Kyoto University, Japan

Panel discussants:

Tobias Haller, Uni Bonn, Switzerland

Katsue Fukamachi, Kyoto University, Japan

Sophie Devienne, AgroParisTech, France

Angela Lomba, University of Porto, Portugal