2025 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 14-25
This paper focuses on Landcare, which developed in Australia in the 1980s as an approach to tackle local/regional environmental problems (e.g., land degradation) by local volunteer groups based on local autonomy and collaboration. We review the history of Landcare from the perspective of environmental policy integration and examine the issues that the federal government must recognize in order to integrate Landcare into its environmental policy effectively. Through literature survey and document analysis, we have identified three critical factors that the federal government should take into account, which are: 1) cost savings in environmental management through Landcare mobilization, 2) effectiveness and flexibility for biodiversity conservation on the ground, and 3) adjustment costs needed to deploy context-sensitive environmental policy. More interdisciplinary research is needed to apply the concepts and approach of Landcare in Japan to promote biodiversity conservation with the aim of achieving a nature-positive future.
