Part 7 of
the series: Satoyama
Concept in Fukui
コウノトリ呼び戻す農法
In the
Shirayama district of the city of Echizen,
efforts have been made to restore Satoyama
landscapes in order to foster the return of the wild Oriental White Stork (コウノトリ/ kōnotori) to the region. Oriental White Storks have been extinct in
Japan and Korea for more than forty years.
By means of a captive breeding program using birds donated by Russia,
conservationists have been trying to revive the species. In 2007, the first chick was born in Japan
since 1964 (see: BBC).
In Echizen,
they tell of an individual stork named Kō-chan
(コウちゃん) who
came to the area in 1970. Kō-chan’s bill
was damaged and he could not eat properly, so the locals began to feed
him. Despite these efforts, the bird
weakened further and they captured him the following year. He was sent to a facility in Hyōgo Prefecture
where they had a breeding facility. Kō-chan
recovered in captivity and bred successfully, living out his days in the
facility for 34 years.
The story of Kō-chan inspired local people in Shirayama to restore their Satoyama landscape
so that storks and humans could live together in harmony. In 2010, for the first time in 40 years, an
Oriental White Stork came to the area and stayed for 107 days. They named him E-chan (えっちゃん). This led to
the founding of a joint research effort in 2011 by Hyōgo and Fukui Prefectures
to reintroduce Oriental White Storks.
As part of the
efforts to introduce sustainable farming methods, local farmers build fish ladders (魚道 /
gyodō), also sometimes called fish steps, that allow fish and other aquatic
creatures to move between the irrigation channels and the paddy fields. It is in the paddy fields that many of these
aquatic creatures reproduce. Such
creatures are an attractive source of food for the storks. Although this farming method produces a lower
yield than industrial farming methods, the farmers believe that the produce is
safer (安心・安全 / Anshin・Anzen / peace of mind ・safe) and tastier to eat.
This is part of a vigorous international debate on the benefits of amount of food produced versus the quality of food produced. (See: Cornell University’s page on the System of Rice Intensification(EN), Weltagrarbericht
(DE), Japan Association
of the System of Rice Intensification (Tōdai), IRRI).
Learn more
details about the “Call Back the Storks” farming methods on their website – all in Japanese but
with many photographs.
Learn more about
the restoration of rice paddy habitats to reintroduce the Oriental White Stork
in Toyooka City here
(EN) and here (JP).
Read: Kazuaki Naito and Hiroshi Ikeda's research paper "Habitat Restoration for the Reintroduction of White Storks" (pdf)
Read: Kazuaki Naito and Hiroshi Ikeda's research paper "Habitat Restoration for the Reintroduction of White Storks" (pdf)
