Crises of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Satoyama Landscape of Japan: A Review on the Role of Management

Yuanmei Jiao, Yinping Ding, Zhiqin Zha and Toshiya Okuro
Additional contact information
Yuanmei Jiao: School of Tourism and Geography Science, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, China
Yinping Ding: School of Tourism and Geography Science, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, China
Zhiqin Zha: School of Tourism and Geography Science, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, China
Toshiya Okuro: Laboratory of Landscape Ecology and Planning, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Satoyama is a Japanese term used to describe the traditional rural landscape in Japan. It has changed continuously from overuse to underuse stages under the development of economy and society, which caused the loss of both biodiversity and ecosystem services. In this paper, we summarized the interactions of biodiversity and ecosystem services affected by human management in Satoyama landscape. The results indicate: (1) the concepts of Satoyama forests and Satoyama landscape varied with researchers and their objectives. The most popular one is a mosaic landscape consisting of Satoyama (secondary) forests, rice paddies, grassland, ponds, irrigating systems, and rural settlements; (2) traditional management regimes on Satoyama landscape were the disturbing mechanisms to provide multiple ecosystem services, as well as a series of semi-natural habitats for species; (3) due to significant progress in economy and technology in Japan, the aging problems of farmers, industrialized agriculture, the import of ecosystem services and goods from international markets, and global climate changes eventually caused the simplification of crop plants, the invasion of alien species, the fragmentation of habitats, and the decreasing of ecosystem services; (4) future research should pay more attention to the complex mechanisms of biodiversity crises and ecosystem services at the landscape scale, considering pattern-process relationships.

Keywords: Satoyama landscape; concepts; management; ecosystem services; changes; biodiversity loss; overuse; underuse; abandonment; consolidation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/454/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/454/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:454-:d:198277

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().