Manufacturing and some other sectors have already started to address the 2007 problem by transferring techniques, skills and experience to younger generations. They are aiming to use OJT (on-the-job training) programs to transfer the know-how of skilled engineers and to create a database of examples and actual experiences of crises engineers have encountered.

As it is almost impossible to explain experiences or techniques for addressing serious pollution problems by reducing them to numerical or statistical data, transferring these experiences or techniques to the next generation as a manual will require significant difficulties. For this reason, it is important to provide a societal framework in which trained, knowledgeable, and skilled elderly people will be able to draw upon their wide work experience in environmental matters to lead on-site or grass-root environmental efforts at home and abroad.

### Section 2. Uneven Regional Population Distribution and the Environment

## 1 Satochi-satoyama Areas (Community-based Forest Areas and the Surrounding Countryside)

Satochi-satoyama (community-based forest areas and the surrounding countryside), which have been created through interactions between humans and nature, now occupy approximately 40% of Japan. This moderate level of human intervention has yielded and maintained unique environments in these areas, providing habitats for various plants and animals, including endangered species. In addition to providing “desirable spaces for primary industry,” these areas are becoming more important in providing city residents with easily accessible natural environments near urban areas.

Rural satochi-satoyama areas are now suffering rapid depopulation. Analysts point out that some depopulating local communities might disappear in these rural areas. According to the “Actual Conditions of Anti-Depopulation Policy Actions” released from Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication in July 2005, approximately 10% of some 49,000 depopulating communities are facing difficulties in maintaining a viable community.

Through agriculture and forestry, Satochi-satoyama have provided suitable habitats for a diverse range of plants and animals and has led to harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature. However, Japan has recently seen a decrease in the number of farmers at the national level, while highly trained, knowledgeable and skilled farmers

Satochi-satoyama

are getting increasingly older. These factors have resulted in stagnating/reducing agricultural production, weakening of local communities, and the expansion of abandoned agricultural land.

In addition, forestry activities are also stagnating, affected by deteriorating forestry productivity due to lower prices for Japanese lumber, as well as weaker demand for fuel wood because of the post-war energy revolution. As a result, workers in the forestry sector are getting older and decreasing in numbers. In addition, since some forests are suffering from inadequate replacement, care, tree thinning or other maintenance work, they might not be able to fully benefit the public.

A progress in depopulation as well as further decrease in profit margins and stagnating activities in the agricultural and forestry sectors has deteriorated the quality of secondary natural environments that have been created and maintained due to a moderate level of human intervention, leading to the disappearance of wide range of wildlife characteristic of such environments. In this context, natural environments including satochi-satoyama areas are facing a crisis of a reduction in their biodiversity.