Growing attention, both in academic and non-academic arenas, has focused on the ways in which local peoples have maintained and constructed their forest landscapes. In African and Asian societies, colonial observers tended to read and interpret forest environments as “virgin nature,” “the Garden of Eden,” and “no-man’s land,” according to colonial epistemologies. Present-day governments inherited these views, following independence, and have built their forest management and conservation policies upon them, causing serious conflicts with local communities. To find solutions to these political problems, it is vital that the historical constructions of current forest landscapes are understood.

Similar dynamic relationships between landscapes and ways of life have been examined in other parts of the world, where industrialization has significantly influenced traditional livelihoods in rural communities. In Japan, in particular, rural and pastoral landscapes (satoyama) have increasingly disappeared following the spread of agricultural methods such as large-scale mechanization and chemical fertilizer use during the “economic miracle” years. Landscape conservation is a current public concern. However, to maintain traditional landscapes, it is necessary to somehow reconstruct traditional management systems.

This Satellite Workshop will broadly discuss various “human factors” that have historically contributed to the construction of rural landscapes in many parts of the world. We will compare a range of cases by highlighting historical landscape shifts in particular geographical areas, and examine environmental differences caused by site-specific variations in climate, geology, and vegetation.