Come to Satoyama Juku to cultivate the land and experience the joy of farming

After training the staff who would take over operations for the "Organic Rice Farm," in August 2011 the Guanshu Education Foundation formally transferred the management and operation of the Organic Rice Farm to Shanshui Rice Company, setting off on a new journey to seek more diverse subjects and directions for environmental education. In November 2011, beside Jiaopu Elementary School in Yuanli Township, we came upon an old Catholic church piled high with farm machinery and odds and ends. After site preparation and building repairs, this old Catholic church that we rented, along with the adjacent fields, became our new base for continuing our environmental education work, and "Satoyama Juku" was established.

Among the low hills of Yuanli, seeking "satoyama"

"Satoyama Juku" is not only an environmental learning center located among the low hills of Yuanli; it also hopes to echo the "satoyama initiative" recently advocated by the United Nations and the Forestry Bureau.

The so-called "satoyama" refers to mixed landscapes such as homes, villages, cultivated land, ponds, streams and hills. Because residents use such environments reasonably, they not only provide food, water sources and daily necessities, but also nurture local culture, increase local biodiversity, and achieve the goal of sustainable environmental use. They are recognized as "socio-ecological production landscapes" of a sustainable type. Although the term "satoyama" originates from Japan, there are sustainable cases managed according to the basic principles of satoyama all over the world. Therefore, through the "satoyama initiative," the United Nations hopes to organize and construct satoyama life and environmental management models around the world, putting into practice the vision of harmonious coexistence between people and the environment.

In June, "Satoyama Juku" was invited to cooperate with Guandu Nature Park and the Wetlands Protection Alliance, taking responsibility for organizing the central Taiwan Project WET workshop, inviting senior promotion instructors from the Project WET foundation to come to Taiwan to teach and to train water resources environmental education promotion instructors.

More notably, this year the Guanshu Education Foundation was invited by Professor Minato Akisaku of Japan's Kiyosato Environmental Education Project to take part in the 2012 NEC World Children’s Nature Club activity, in which environmental learning activities were held respectively in Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan, and through online video conferencing, children from the three countries shared their learning experiences "face to face." The 18 fifth- and sixth-graders of Jiaopu Elementary School also, through arrangements by "Satoyama Juku," gained an unforgettable environmental learning and international exchange experience in March!

Starting in September, "Satoyama Juku" extended its reach into the Jiaopu community where it is located. "Satoyama Citrus Fragrance" hopes to invite everyone to learn about Jiaopu's very important citrus industry and to seek an environmentally friendly future; "Dairy Farmers and Milk" will take everyone to understand how "milk," which everyone seems so familiar with yet is actually so unfamiliar, is produced.

Till and read the earth, visit satoyama, everyone come together!

As "Satoyama Juku" gradually develops and our familiarity with the community increases, we will also develop more experiential activities related to food, satoyama and environmentally friendly living. Whether producers or consumers, everyone is welcome to come to "Satoyama Juku" to till and read the earth and together explore ways for people and the environment to coexist harmoniously!

If you also want to personally experience satoyama life, or to understand the power of "eating really matters," you can:

• Go now to the "Satoyama Juku" website to learn about related experiential activity programs.
• Join the "Satoyama Juku" Facebook fan page to follow news related to "Satoyama Juku."
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