Understanding the reasons for sustainability of Kamogawa Satoyama Trust Program (KSTP) as a volunteer farm work in Kamanuma community.

Abstract

Volunteer farm work programs respond to rural communities’ challenges like aging, depopulation, and labor shortages, especially in mountainous regions. However, those programs’ sustainability and attracting participants pose ongoing challenges. This study examines Kamogawa Satoyama Trust Program (KSTP), a volunteer farmwork in Kamanuma that has been sustained for more than 10 years. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the mechanism of this program including the recruitment strategy, with a focus on volunteers’ motivations and repeated participations through in-depth interviews. Initially, the mechanism began with the recruitment strategy by the community activist, highlighting how he promoted this community to attract volunteers by emphasizing community’s charms and positive aspects. Later, people entered this program through three main channels: Kamanuma’s charm and beauty functioning as basic of this mechanism, egoistic motivations channel meeting personal people’s needs and finally a social channel holding the community and volunteers together because of strong social bonds. Lastly, ensuring the sustainability of this program and community development is carried out by those volunteers with close involvement in the program by supporting this village continuously as their close-knit community in their varied roles.