KOBE Satoyama Biodiversity Strategy

• What is Satoyama?
• Challenges
• Goals
• Three Pillars
• Detailed brochure

What is Satoyama?

While Kobe is a major city of 1.5 million, which developed around one of Japan’s first and most active international trade ports,
it is also home to many areas of rich nature, known as satoyama. This term refers to natural environments that have been
sustainably used, maintained, and protected by local residents through traditional agricultural practices. These include the
management of rice paddies, fields, irrigation channels, ponds, streams and grasslands, as well as the use of trees for timber and fuel.
Because of this, satoyama areas now constitute a mosaic of diverse environments, rich in biodiversity.

Challenges

Due to various changes in the socio-economic landscape, however, people no longer use the resources offered by the satoyama areas
to the same extent as before. Because of this, we now see an increase in the number of abandoned farms, poorly maintained forests,
overgrown thickets and bamboo groves. Many waterways and farm ponds are also no longer managed in an appropriate way.
In addition to this, we also see an increase in the number of invasive alien species, all of which leads to the loss of biodiversity in
these areas. Thus, once common animals, such as the Japanese pond turtles, red dragonflies and medaka fish, as well as plants like
the balloon flower and field fleawort are now hard to come across.

Goals

We envision the ideal state of the satoyama areas as one, where a rich variety of plants and animals can thrive; the value of a
harmonious relationship between people and nature is widely shared; and conservation, management, and sustainable use are
practiced in a continuous manner, allowing us to enjoy the many benefits of biodiversity for generations to come.

Three Pillars

Getting to Know the Satoyama

• Promoting the appeal of the areas
• Raising awareness about biodiversity
• Raising awareness about issues of invasive species and wild animals

Protecting the Satoyama

• Promoting initiatives to achieve the 30-by-30 target
• Wildlife monitoring
• Conservation of forests, farmlands and grasslands
• Measures against invasive species and wild animals

Connecting People to the Satoyama Projects

• Circular use of satoyama resources
• Personnel development
• Activities support
• Achieving carbon neutrality
• Connecting people engaged in conservation activities

Detailed brochure

KOBE Satoyama Biodiversity Strategy (comming soon)

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