Protection of citizens-participating rural landscape: A case study ofstate-run Satoyama Park (or Kaisho Forest) in Japan

Along with increasing global environmental and the population problems, citizens have gradually become protagonistic in protection activities of rural landscape, called Satoyama in Japan. Satoyama protection activities have promoted the effective management of Satoyama. This paper used an on-going construction of the Sea Forest Satoyama Park as a proxy and discussed the importance of the role of citizen participation in rural landscape management. During the Aichi World Expo, citizens found that Kaisho Forest was actually about Satoyama. In protecting Kaisho Forest ecosystem, environmental groups and local citizens in Japan took measures to preserve the natural features of Kaisho Forest (the World Expo's venue) and made it a State Park for commemorating world expos; an element the community eventually attained. The attitude of the State Park advocates towards the World Expo changed from one of opposition to support for the protection of Kaisho Forest. The advocate group went on to draw the overall plan to make Kaisho Forest a State-run Satoyama Park. This paper argued that in protecting Kaisho Forest, building an effective mechanism of consultation cooperation among citizens/volunteers, administration and local residents was imperative. Practical lessons had been learned from state constructions of rural landscapes in Japan. It was recommended, as a matter of urgency, that government issued laws and regulations on rural resources protection. It was good that the society gradually led the mass in developing consciousness about the protection of traditional countryside landscapes and participated in rural landscape constructions.