2015•06•08 Tokyo
The UNU-IAS International Satoyama Initiative has produced the video “Bouncing Back from Disaster – Working with Nature to Create a Brighter Future for the Urato Islands” to capture a portrait of people engaged in community recovery after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
Satoyama and satoumi are Japanese words that indicate a landscape (satoyama) or seascape (satoumi) comprising a mosaic of different land and sea uses and habitats, formed and developed through human interaction with nature. The video highlights the abundant nature of satoyama and satoumi on and around the Urato Islands of Miyagi Prefecture, and shows how the people living and working on the islands maintain these special links with nature.
While challenges to the islands’ communities, such as the aging and waning rural population, have arisen in the last few decades, the disasters of March 2011 have exacerbated the situation at an unprecedented pace. Satoyama and satoumi on the Urato Islands have been pushed to the limit.
Two additional videos on the Urato Islands are available at the links below (Japanese language only):
The UNU-IAS International Satoyama Initiative (ISI) has been heavily involved in reconstruction efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake and related disasters of 2011, especially in the Urato Islands. ISI, in collaboration with Tohoku University (Japan), initiated a project that aims to revitalize satoyama and satoumi in the islands’ communities utilizing the concept of the Satoyama Initiative.
The production of this video was made with financial contributions from the Ink Cartridge Satogaeri Project.