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Model of Sustainability?

Catherine Knight

“Satoyama” has become something of a buzzword in the last few years, appearing often in the media and discourse on nature conservation and environmental management practices in Japan. But in the lead-up to the UN’s COP10 conference on biodiversity satoyama has been raised into the limelight: the term has featured prominently in scholarly literature and promotional materials published by the COP10 sponsor and host organizations, and the so-called “Satoyama Initiative” has been launched by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment to promote the concept worldwide, showcasing satoyama as a model of sustainable resource management based on traditional methods of agriculture. How can this sudden rise to fame be explained, and what is the veracity of the claims about satoyama’s value as a model?

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Dr Catherine Knight currently works as an environmental policy analyst for
the New Zealand government. Her research interests include environmental
history, with a particular focus on forested environments; the human
dimension of environmental management and nature conservation; and
comparative geomentalities. Her publications include: “The bear as
‘endangered pest’: symbolism and paradox in newspaper coverage of the ‘bear
problem’”, Japan Forum, 20(2), 2008; “The moon bear as a symbol of yama: its
significance in the folklore of upland hunting culture of Japan”, Asian
Ethnology, 67(1), 2008; “The nature conservation movement in post-war
Japan”, Journal of Environment and History, 16(3); “Between the profane
world and the spirit worlds: the conceptualisation of uplands and mountains
in Maori and Japanese folklore”, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 11(2)
December 2009 and “The paradox of discourse concerning deforestation in New
Zealand: a historical survey”, Journal of Environment and History, 15(3).

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