The Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) and Waseda University Environmental Research Institute (WUERI), with support from the Forestry Agency and the Ministry of the Environment, celebrated IBD by holding a symposium titled “Biological Diversity in Satoyama – Harmonizing Forests and Agriculture“ at Waseda University in Tokyo (Fig. 1 in the pictures).

Satoyama is a typical landscape in Japan, where natural vegetation, animals and human activities, including forestry and agriculture, are well harmonized, assuring sustainability of the landscape. However, because of modernization and urbanization, connections between human activities and ecosystem functions have been disappearing in the landscape. The symposium featured four speakers who provided information about what has been occurring in Satoyama and what we should do to pass this on to future generations (Fig. 2-4 in the pictures). Seven posters were prepared for the symposium.

The symposium program and a short summary of each presentation are as follows:

Symposium to celebrate International Day for Biological Diversity, 22 May 2008, co-organized by FFPRI and WUERI

“Biological Diversity in Satoyama – Harmonizing Forests and Agriculture“

1. Estimating Forest Biodiversity in a Satoyama Landscape (Dr. Makoto Sano): Based on research results showing that forest biodiversity is related to forest types and forest ages (successional stages), Dr. Sano’s research team developed a model to estimate future forest biodiversity under various scenarios (Fig. 5 in the pictures).
2. Utilizing Ecosystem Services Derived from Satoyama Forests in Agriculture (Dr. Kaoru Maeto): Dr. Maeto’s research group determined that native natural enemies that contribute to agricultural pest management survived in forests, which used to provide daily necessities in the same landscape (Fig. 6 in the pictures).
3. Maintaining Grasslands in Rural Areas Dominated by Forests (Dr. Yoshitaka Takahashi): Dr. Takahashi’s research group, collaborating with an NPO, worked on maintaining grasslands and pastures, which used to be typical in Satoyama landscapes but became biodiversity hot-spots because of a decrease of human activities including grass harvesting for agriculture and daily necessities (Fig. 7 in the pictures).
4. Biodiversity and Environmental Economics (Dr. Kohichi Kuriyama): Dr. Kuriyama demonstrated that people intend to expend more for conservation of biodiversity based on his CVM research, and concluded that people’s expectations of forests have diversified and the range of stakeholders has expanded in recent years (Fig. 8 in the pictures).

More photos and symposium details are available in Japanese on the FFPRI website