Creating Platforms for Capacity Building in Rural Communities: Noto Peninsula, Japan and Ifugao, the Philippines

Approximately 40–50% of Japan’s total land area is made up of satoyama (areas between mountain foothills and arable flat lands), where people have engaged in agricultural and forestry work since ancient times. Human activities have played a large part in shaping the natural environments of satoyama, giving rise to ecosystem services and enriching the lives of those who live there (Takeuchi, Ecol Res 25:891–897, 2010; Duraiappah et al. Satoyama–Satoumi ecosystems and human Well-being: socio-ecological production landscapes of Japan. United Nations University Press, Tokyo, 2012). However, in recent years, depopulation coupled with an increasingly low birth rate and aging populations in areas with satoyama has led to more and more agricultural land and afforestation areas being left untended. This in turn has led to the degradation of landscapes and ecosystem services such as production, environmental control and inherited traditional cultures, and in some cases rural settlements are collapsing as a result. In order to break this vicious cycle of the deterioration of satoyama environments, securing suitable human resources is vital. This requires a form of revitalized nature, which is sustained through the activities of humans to encourage regional regeneration and sustainable development, despite the atrophy of local communities. However, while nobody would argue against the importance of human resources of this kind, putting in place the frameworks necessary for developing these human resources is no easy matter. This chapter discusses the frameworks that have been put in place for training human resources who are responsible for bringing about regional regeneration and reforms in satoyama environments located on the Noto Peninsula, as well as the processes by which these have been put into practice. In addition, this chapter introduces trials that have been made to utilize the know-how from Noto in developing human resources for rice terraces in Ifugao, the Philippines.