*Information related to faculty members/students and graduate schools at Gifu University here are all that of the time of interviewing.

Learning from the local people in rural villages and promoting the unique attractions of the area.

Gifu University Satoyama Life Supporters
A Gifu University club that works to revitalize the community. The main site for the activities is in the Kasuga district of Ibigawa Town, Ibi-gun, Gifu Prefecture. Once a month, the team goes to the site to communicate with local farmers and others, listen to the issues they have, and conduct activities to solve them. In academic year 2022, they also harvested "Tokuyama namba," a chili pepper native to Ibigawa Town, and planted rice. In addition, the club produces an annual tourism pamphlet and clear file folders that summarize the charms of the satoyama. The club also utilizes social networking services such as Instagram (@gu_satokura) and Twitter (@gu_satokura) to communicate information mainly to the younger generation. It is commonly known as "satokura."

As depopulation in satoyama (rural villages where people coexist with nature in traditional ways) progresses, various problems have been occurring.

We, the "Satoyama Life Supporters" are a club working for environmental conservation and community revitalization in the Kasuga area of Ibigawa Town, Ibi District (hereinafter, "Kasuga"). Kasuga is also known for its tea plantations in the sky, known as the "Machu Picchu of Gifu." Our club currently has 14 members. We all belong to the Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences and share a common love of nature. We have regular meetings every Thursday and also visit the satoyama once a month. Activities on site vary from helping with rice planting to maintaining fences to prevent damage from animals. Sometimes we receive meals made from traditional vegetables and have the chance to experience harvesting. We have visited many times, and We are always impressed by the nature in Kasuga, which takes on a new appearance from season to season. We were not able to visit the area for the past few years due to the COVID-19 crisis, but we have resumed our activities there this academic year.
Depopulation of satoyama causes various problems. For example, if people disappear from satoyama that lie between the mountain ranges and villages, the ecosystem will collapse and the rich natural environment will be lost. In addition, as the number of residents in the satoyama decreases, damage from animals is more likely to occur. The beautiful "Kaibara rice terraces," one of Gifu's 21 best terraced rice fields, is in danger of being lost due to the lack of successors to the farming industry.

By increasing the number of people interested in Kasuga, we can change the current situation

Tourist pamphlets and clear files produced by
members of the Satoyama Life Supporters.
They are placed at roadside stations around
Kasuga and other locations.

We believe it is important to investigate what is causing these problems and take action accordingly. One of the things we are working on is to raise the profile of Kasuga. Kasuga has attractive local resources, such as terraced tea plantations that seem to reach up to the sky, sazare-ishi (boulder formed from gravel and sediment) mentioned in the Japanese national anthem, mugwort and other medicinal herbs, and terraced rice paddies. However, it is also true that many people are not aware that these things can be found in Kasuga.
For this reason, we produced sightseeing pamphlets and clear file folders that summarize the attractions of local resources and information on the surrounding area. We hope to increase the number of people interested in Kasuga by placing these at roadside stations around Ibigawa Town. It was difficult to do the interviews, photography, and design by ourselves, but we are glad that it eventually took shape. We also started social networking accounts such as Twitter and Instagram for each target age group, as many people find information using their smartphones. We cannot expect immediate results, but we would like to continue our activities steadily for the sake of the people in Kasuga, who treat us so kindly.

Involving the students around us so they begin to think of it as something that concerns them

Families support our activities, saying "it is a good thing because it is an experience that we can only have now." Our goal for the future is to involve the students around us. We would be happy if we could interest students from other faculties in the allure and challenges of the satoyama, not only those like us whose research subject is the natural environment and who love nature. We believe that there are many students at Gifu University who have a strong interest in community relations, and we would like to change the situation by focusing on this area of appeal. We also hope to expand the population of people involved in Kasuga by raising awareness to as many people as possible about the beauty and reality of Kasuga.

Gifu University Satoyama Life Supporters
HAYASHI Yutaro

Hayashi says that he hopes to make use of the tourism pamphlets and other materials created by senior students to further promote Kasuga's attractions.