The Satoyama Initiative is a global initiative based on the concept of

Satoyama is a Japanese term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land. Literally, ''sato'' () means village, and ''yama'' () means hill or mountain. Satoyama have been developed through centuries of small-scale ...

— a traditional rural landscape in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The initiative promotes the integration of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity in production landscapes, outside of protected areas. The initiative has been supported and implemented by an international partnership of over 100 governments, civil society organizations, and indigenous peoples.

Name

The name "

" comes from a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

term for

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s subject to human production activities. Examples are

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

Animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

, and natural habitats, where human influence is an essential aspect of the local

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. The Satoyama Initiative is based on the principle that these landscapes, when properly managed, can benefit both biodiversity and human livelihoods, rather than these being in a state of opposition, thus leading to "society in harmony with nature". It is important to note that the "satoyama" landscape ''per se'' is limited to a model landscape found in Japan, while landscapes with similar features are found in countries around the world. To avoid referring to landscapes around the world by an inappropriate Japanese term, documentation used in the context of the Satoyama Initiative uses the term "socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)" to refer to all such landscapes, including Japanese satoyama.

History

Some resistance came from some who opposed the use of the word "Satoyama" since it is only used in Japanese and is not a common term throughout the world, and from some major agricultural exporting countries who "made the criticism that the Satoyama Initiative would augment local production for local consumption, and thus inhibit free trade in goods in the spirit of the

GATT The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its prea ...

Uruguay Round The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spanning from 1986 to 1993 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting parties". The R ...

" before it was finally included in the COP 10 decision.

International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI)

The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), one of the major institutional components under the Satoyama Initiative, is a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

established on 19 October 2010 "to promote the activities identified by the Satoyama Initiative". By 2014, the partnership had grown from its original 51 member organizations to more than 160, including national and local governmental organizations,

non-governmental A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

and

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

and

local community A local community has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical l ...

organizations,

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

and research institutions,

private-sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

and

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

organizations,

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and other

international organization An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...

s, and others. IPSI holds annual Global Conferences and other events, sponsors collaborative activities carried out by its members, collects case studies of work done in production landscapes and seascapes, and promotes knowledge facilitation and research. IPSI's Secretariat is hosted by UNU-IAS in Tokyo, which conducts research on various issues related to the Satoyama Initiative — in particular through its International Satoyama Initiative research project.

References

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External links

International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) website
Initiatives

Name

History

International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI)

See also

References

External links