Traditional Farming Landscapes for Sustainable Living in Scandinavia and Japan : Global Revival Through the Satoyama Initiative

Summary, in English

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.

• Author: Björn Berglund; Junko Kitagawa; Per Lageras; Koji Nakamura; Naoko Sasaki; Yoshinori Yasuda
• Department/s: Quaternary Sciences
• Publishing year: 2014
• Language: English
• Pages: 559-578
• Publication/Series: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 5
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0499-6
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Springer
• Topic: Geology
• Keywords: Agrarian land use history; Satoyama landscape; Infield/outland; Nature; restoration; Biodiversity changes; Deforestation history
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0044-7447