Traditional farming landscapes for sustainable living in Scandinavia and Japan: global revival through the Satoyama initiative.
Traditional, pre-industrial farming was adapted to the natural environment-topography, geology, hydrology, climate, and biota. Traditional land use systems are still to be traced in Scandinavia as an "infield/outland landscape", and in Japan as a "Satoyama landscape." There are obvious similarities and differences in land use-the main difference being that pasturing of cattle and sheep has been less important in Japan. These land use systems can be traced back to early sedentary settlements 1500-2500 years ago. In both regions, traditional management almost ceased in the mid-twentieth century leading to afforestation and decreased biological diversity. Today, there is in Japan a growing movement for landscape restoration and promotion of a sustainable living countryside based on local agrarian and forestry production, local energy, tourism, etc. With this background, the so-called Satoyama Initiative has been organized and introduced as a global socio-ecological project with ecosystem services for human well-being.
Department of Geology/Quaternary Geology, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden, bjorn.berglund@geol.lu.se.
Björn E
BE
Berglund
Junko
J
Kitagawa
Per
P
Lagerås
Koji
K
Nakamura
Naoko
N
Sasaki
Yoshinori
Y
Yasuda
D000383:Agriculture; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D007564:Japan; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries