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A B e t t e r Wo r l d

L if e on L a ndImage: CGER

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Land use scenarios for assessing sustainableecosystem services — a study for an energyself-sufficient ecovillage in Japan
Yoshiki Yamagata, Head of GCP Tsukuba Office, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan;
Yoichiro Fukuda, Researcher of Institute of Environmental Sciences, Hokkaido Research Organization;
Nobuhiko Yoshimura, CEO, FiveQuestionZ LLC; Junka Sakamoto, Director, Hokkaido Ecovillage Promotion ProjectT

he town of Yoichi is located approximately 20km westof Otaru city, the main port on the island of Hokkaido,
in the lower reaches of the Yoichi River basin. Yoichi
and the neighbouring town of Niki have similar climaticand topographical conditions and are well known for theirorchards including apples, pears, peaches and cherries.
The area is also home to several wineries that use locally
produced grapes and there are also whisky distilleries.
The two towns have a combined population of around 23,000.
The area is mountainous, and primary industries, such as agriculture and fishing, are the main economic activities. The area
is relatively accessible from Hokkaido’s capital city, Sapporo,and many farmers open their orchards to tourists from thecity during harvesting times. The wineries also conduct tastings, attracting customers from as far away as Tokyo.
Hokkaido Ecovillage Promotion Project
The Hokkaido Ecovillage Promotion Project (HEPP) wascreated as a site for learning and practical engagement in
the creation of a sustainable region. It is also a not-forprofit organization that offers hands-on experience of self
sufficiency to members, students and the general public.
Activities at the Yoichi Ecovillage are aimed at exploring
environmentally-friendly lifestyles and forms of farming,
while simultaneously developing a transitional movementthat seeks to gradually transform the entire region via beneficial relationships between various local actors.
Within the Yoichi Ecovillage, facilities have been created
to promote learning about and experiencing an environmentally harmonious lifestyle. With the help of participating
engineers and builders, locally produced and recycled timber
has been used alongside passive design principles to makethe most of natural light and air flows, ensuring high levelsof thermal insulation and air tightness during the coldest
times of the year, when temperatures can fall to -10°C. The
village also uses stoves that burn locally-sourced wood, andcomposting toilets that process human waste onsite. Both
construction and installation of these facilities have been
made possible by the participation of local residents and visi-

tors to the Ecovillage, including cooperating farmers and, assuch, has been a successful exercise in community-driven
building, as construction staff and visitors now live together
in a communal shared house.
Survey of the potential for self-supplied energy in the area
A study is now underway on the potential for renewableenergy use within the region, based on the Ecovillage model.
The study focuses on:• Quantities of exploitable energy resources• Energy demand• Renewable energy scenarios
The ultimate aim of these efforts is the demonstration ofsustainable energy, using scenarios involving the participation of both the Ecovillage and the local community.
Available energy resources
The most available renewable energy resources in the area
include pruned branches from local orchards, and woodproduced through forest management activities. The quantities of branches and the seasons in which they are pruned
differ according to the type of tree and pruning methods
used. Empirical studies have been carried out to ascertain
the potential quantities, the amount of labour requiredfor branch collection and the possibility of utilizing thisresource as a source of energy.
These studies have shown that cherry trees will produce
approximately 2.0–2.3t/ha of pruned branches from living
trees. While the branches are pruned each spring, the grapevines are pruned in autumn. Also, new trees are planted over
a 10–20-year cycle, at the end of which large amounts of waste
wood are produced. Pruned branches are rarely utilized by local
farmers, with most of these materials often burned in the fields
as waste. Some of them are turned into mulch and returned tothe orchards and some are treated as industrial waste.
The area also contains many mountain forests. These
include forests planted for timber that are no longer properly
managed, as well as secondary forests created by naturally
occurring hardwoods growing in areas after timber has been

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Yoichi Ecovillage built as part of the Hokkaido Ecovillage Promotion Project

removed. The Ecovillage also encompasses around 1.14 ha offorest which, although currently not adequately managed,
may provide a viable energy source with the implementationof appropriate management.
A survey of local forest resources has identified around
250m 3 of above-ground biomass, the equivalent of some 140t
of wood fuel. If this wood were collected in a sustainable
manner over a 30-year cycle, 4.7t of wood fuel would become
available for use each year.
Energy demand
A study of current energy demands was conducted. The
shared house is usually occupied by two or three people,
but as much as ten during busy periods. Heat is produced byburning kerosene which is used to heat water for bathing,cooking and cleaning, and for heating the house. Electricity
is used to power a kitchen oven, refrigerator, office appliances, boiler and lighting.
Meeting these energy demands with local sources requires
a detailed demand analysis and the drafting of an energy plan
based on the findings. In the winter of 2017, devices were
installed to monitor the consumption of electricity and heat,and the size of the necessary renewable energy equipment
has been analyzed. The largest consumption of electricity in asingle day was found to be 12kWh, while the largest consumption of heat energy was 102kWh. During winter, over 90 per
cent of heat energy was used for heating the rooms.

Scenario analysis
Considering available energy resources and energy demand, inwhat ways should these energy resources be used? Is it possible to balance supply and demand, supplying only the amountof energy required? Would such a scenario be sustainable?
In order to answer those questions, the Yoichi Ecovillage
was used as a model to estimate the amounts of energy both
required and available over a one-year period, based on thefindings of resource and energy demand surveys. Two scenarios for the use of locally-sourced energy were considered:• Scenario A: Energy supplied to the shared house only.
• Scenario B: Energy supplied to all Ecovillage facilities.
Scenario A is simple. The annual amount of energy requiredby the shared house is estimated at 3,200kWh of electricity
and 16,000kWh of heat energy. In this scenario, electricity
would be supplied by photovoltaic solar panels, while heatwould be provided by woody biomass in firewood boilers,boiler stoves and rocket stoves. The wood would be suppliedby the pruning of orchard trees. To generate the required
amount of electricity would need 4kW solar panels, covering
an area of 24m2. The necessary heat energy could be suppliedby 5.5t of fuel wood obtained from 1.4ha of forest, provided
that the forest management practices were carried out, or 9.6tof pruned branches from 4.6ha of orchards.
This scenario envisions supplying energy to each residence
separately and is the most individually distributed system.

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Sample plot survey used in the sustainability analysis

Image: CGER

Pruned branches collected from the orchards for fuelImage: CGER

The shared house used as the base for the assessments

Image: CGER

L if e on L a nd

Image: CGERA B e t t e r Wo r l dStudy meeting within the shared house

Scenario B widens the scope of energy supply to include
surrounding facilities and residences such as a café andcottages, and envisions energy supplied according to a local
heat delivery system. Unlike Scenario A, this would involve
supplying energy to multiple buildings simultaneously,
requiring larger equipment but also achieving higher energy
efficiency and improving maintainability. While installingenergy delivery equipment would require additional costs,
it would be possible to limit costs per unit of energy fromboilers owing to the benefits of scale. Chip boilers have theadditional benefit of automatic operation.
Efforts are underway to consider these scenarios jointlywith stakeholders and to identify potential methods ofobtaining energy resources and introducing efficient system
operations.
Training programme of sustainable regional development
Training programmes, conducted mainly for national andlocal governmental officers in charge of natural resource
management from developing countries, were held at theHEPP from 2015 to 2017, organized by Rakuno Gakuen
University, Japan, and the Japan International Corporation
Agency (JICA).
The programmes focused on the methodology used toanalyze ecosystem services using geographic information
systems, remote sensing and the InVEST (integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs) model, developed

Electricity demand in winterBoilers 29.0%

Living 34.3%

Oven 0.8%

Kitchen 0.5%
Utility + bathroom
9.1%
Room C+D 23.2%

Room A+B 3.1%

Source: CGER

by Natural Capital Project. After that, the participants visited
HEPP and its surroundings for a closer understanding of thearea. With this first-hand experience, participants attended aworkshop to discuss a future vision for the region’s sustainability, with scenarios proposed throughout the workshop.
It was found that technical training was not always
necessary. But, in order to focus on the future visions andscenarios, integration systems and datasets are being developed to evaluate and compare several ecosystem services.

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