A System That Addresses the Problem of Satoyama Degradation Through Urban-Rural Partnerships

“Agricultural Experience and Bamboo Shoot Digging 2026”

I participated in the event “Agricultural Experience and Bamboo Shoot Digging 2026,” organized by the NPO Kukunochi, which is actively addressing the challenges facing satoyama regions—such as an aging population, population decline, and a shortage of successors.

About 40 participants gathered on the day, and two activities were held. There were many families with young children, and it was heartwarming to see the kids running around happily, touching the soil and discovering insects. I felt this was a precious opportunity for families to share a connection with nature that is hard to experience in the city.

The first activity was planting sweet potato (Beniazuma) seedlings. We dug holes about 5 cm deep and planted the seedlings, making sure they were all facing the same direction. We divided the work among everyone and planted a total of 100 plants. I’ve heard that a harvest event is planned for around autumn, so I’m already looking forward to seeing how the seedlings we planted grow.

The second activity was bamboo shoot digging. According to the staff, if the parent bamboo is left uncut, the bamboo grove will continue to spread, so ongoing maintenance is essential. The green color of the bamboo is a sign of youth, and the growth rate of bamboo shoots is astonishingly fast. It was striking to realize that the very act of participants digging up these bamboo shoots is directly linked to the conservation of the satoyama landscape.

The background to this is the serious challenges facing satoyama regions.It is said that the population will decline to two-thirds of its current size within the next 10 to 15 years. At the Bear Coexistence Hackathon
I personally participated in last year (where I created the board game app “Pair Bear”), I heard that the neglect of mountains—left untended by human hands—is believed to be contributing to the recent trend of bears venturing into urban areas. I was able to reaffirm that these events, which at first glance seem like distant problems, are in fact directly connected to the current state of the satoyama.

Interview with Mr. Konaka

After the event, I interviewed Mr. Konaka, a core member of the group, to ask him about some things I had been wondering about.

Interviewee Masamichi Konaka Environmental Counselor, Nature Experience Activity Instructor, Ishikawa Community Development Coordinator, Social Education Specialist

I imagine this event is helping to revitalize the satoyama area, but what was the original purpose behind it?

Our staff members are from outside this area. We originally started this company with people from a surveying firm. The reason was that, through our work, we had become aware of the state of neglect in the mountainous areas. Having observed the ocean, rivers, and mountains, we understood that the deterioration of the mountains leads to sediment runoff into rivers, which in turn affects the ocean. That’s why we believed it was crucial to begin by restoring the forest environment—and that was the starting point.

So it all started with a perspective unique to someone in the surveying field. How did that lead to your current work in satoyama conservation?

In satoyama areas, people obtain the things they need—such as food and charcoal for daily life—from the surrounding natural environment, and this way of life naturally leads to the maintenance of the environment.In the past, charcoal was the primary source of energy, so there was nationwide demand for harvesting trees from the mountains to make charcoal, and the timber in the hills was highly valued. However, as times changed and energy needs shifted, the demand disappeared, and the forests were no longer tended. The same is true for bamboo groves: areas with demand are maintained, but those without are left to run wild. That’s why we’re using events like this to utilize the areas we’ve maintained and ensure they’re preserved.

I see. Speaking of the old days, there used to be plenty of embankments and nature around my house, too, but I feel like they’ve gradually been paved over with concrete, and fireflies have become a rare sight. It’s wonderful that people living in the city have the chance to experience something like this.

That’s right. There are challenges facing people in the city as well. When I was a child, there were plenty of places in Kanazawa where you could connect with nature, but these days, they’re hard to come by. Many parents today are eager to give their children those kinds of experiences. While the mountains are overgrown and neglected because there are no people living in the mountainous areas, there are parents in the city who want to give their children those experiences but simply don’t have the space to do so. I think that’s where we’re able to bridge the gap.Also, as a place for youth development, we have high school and college students coming here. Many of them are focused on gaining experience while they’re still students to figure out how they can apply their fields of study.

I get the impression that the experience isn’t just a one-way street, but rather a well-functioning cycle that generates various positive side effects. Do you also engage in hands-on crafting or similar activities?

We ask local residents to process and sell ingredients harvested from this area, which we’re preserving as a satoyama landscape. The initiative we’ve been running the longest involves turning bamboo from the local bamboo groves into charcoal. When combined with rice husks from the paddy fields, this creates a base material for compost. By adding household food scraps, it turns into fertilizer—a process we’ve been carrying out for about ten years in collaboration with the Kanazawa City Environmental Bureau under the name “Cardboard Compost.” We’re using satoyama resources to reduce waste in the city.We’ve managed to establish a small-scale cycle where resources, people, and money circulate together. Conversely, if we expand the scope too much, the cycle breaks down because resources are limited. We’re proceeding while carefully maintaining that balance.

After hearing all of this, I’ve come to feel that the residents here are naturally protecting the environment on their own.

The people here are reluctant to use excessive amounts of pesticides, and they routinely wait until the firefly season is over before dredging the irrigation canals. There are so many things I only learned after being told—like when the swallows return and the way they prepare to take flight.We tend to think we have to “take in information and put it into practice,” but the people who live here have always known and done these things naturally. It’s the same as how people who live near the ocean don’t litter with plastic—it’s because they see the consequences right before their eyes. It makes me realize that this is an environment where “things fall into place as they should.”

Reflections

I hope these kinds of initiatives will spread to satoyama areas beyond Higashihara Town. While I imagine the solutions will vary by region, I felt there is potential for a core framework to emerge by using this as a successful model. I
also believe that the people who have experienced these activities will serve as catalysts, leading to the revitalization of other regions.

Thank you to Mr. Konaka for kindly agreeing to the interview despite being busy with the event, and to all the staff members who shared so much with us.