Geographical review of Japan series B Vol. 87(2014) No. 1

The Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program in the Philippines was enacted to reduce poverty and manage natural resources by transferring the responsibility of land use to local residents, as per the slogan “putting the people first, sustainable forestry will follow.” However, today, the very concept and the effectiveness of the CBFM program are being questioned because there has been little improvement in forestry or social welfare in the upland society. The strengths and weaknesses of the idea of community-based development have been discussed previously. However, it is more critical that we understand how the local agents are adapting their lives to the changing but regulated world and the conditions that enable their survival than continue to criticize the very idea of community-based development. This study examined these issues using household economic data from the residential community of Alangan-Mangyan, comprised of indigenous people, on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. The results demonstrated that cash income in the lowlands or alternative resources gained from development aid sustain the livelihood or survival of the households, making up for forest-dependent revenue lost due to institutional regulations such as the prohibition of traditional slash-and-burn farming. In addition, a taste shift caused by change of lifestyle, as evidenced by an increase in the purchase of rice, has been observed, and the economic base is shifting from a subsistence economy to a monetary economy. These results identify the conditions that enable the survival of the indigenous residents relying on a combination of hardscrabble subsistence living and several forms of development aid.

Efforts to implement sustainability-oriented policies through environmental governance have become increasingly critical across the globe, during the past 20 years. This article analyzes the policy-making process of an Eco-Town project, a support policy for the development of the recycling industry in Japan, based on a case study in Kitakyushu City. Contrary to the majority of literature on Eco-Towns, which primarily examines economic factors, this article aims to illustrate the struggles, negotiations, and collaboration necessary between the local government and actors at different scales. In order to implement a recycling scheme in the post-steel era, the Kitakyushu City Government coordinated with various actors through the strategy of scale. The local government initiated a local recycling scheme to address global environmental issues and to persuade other actors to change their attitudes. The local government contacted national actors to seek support and stretch its influence. Similarly, facing protests by citizens and civic organizations, it emphasized environmental issues on a global scale in order to legitimize its claims and seek understanding. Furthermore, it cooperated with actors in other countries to continue to stretch its influence on a transnational scale. As a result, consensus was established and a cooperative relationship emerged among the actors participating in the policy-making process. The recycling scheme was then successfully implemented as an Eco-Town project, and the Eco-Town concept spread to the transnational scale indicating that the strategy of scale is useful in the policy-making process and in expanding the influence of the policy.

Since the 21st century, driven by the oil trade, Kazakhstan’s economy and its society have developed rapidly. The population loss caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union has now been mitigated and there is a steady movement towards expansion of the population scale. However, environment pollution and resource scarcity weight heavily on survival in some regions. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the distribution, and the spatial evolution of population in Kazakhstan since the 21st century. Analysis based on the research reveals that the population of Kazakhstan demonstrates a decreasing pattern which evolves from outside to inside, from east to west. The largest population group is mainly distributed in the southern and southeastern areas, especially along the west side of the Tianshan mountain. Also, the urban population remains high in central Kazakstan but low in north and south of the state. Another finding of this research is a clearly differentiated distribution in Kazakhstan. In the final section, this article analyzes characteristics in areas of natural environment, economic development and national policy system are discussed.

The 8th Japan-Korea-China Joint Conference on Geography was held from July 31 to August 5, 2013, mainly at the Hakozaki campus of Kyushu University with 144 participants in attendance. This article provides a detailed account of the conference.

The activity of peddlers and the characteristics of peddlers’ village were analyzed, and the present status of the peddling activities and the features of the peddler’s village were clarified. Discussion focused on the factors of why peddling activities continue today in Kamigamo district, Kyoto. The characteristics of peddling activities in Kamigamo district were: 1) Peddling is mainly carried out by women, and agricultural work is done by their husbands. Both the peddlers and customers pass their work on to their daughters-in-law, making it difficult for men to participate. 2) Peddling activities were important to complement the income from rice farming as the peddlers could get money immediately. 3) Peddling is a single-day activity. The peddling activities in the suburban areas involved production activities in residential areas. 4) A relationship of trust is established between the peddlers and their customers beyond the commercial act. The characteristics of agriculture in Kamigamo district were: 1) Considering the fact that Kamigamo district is a suburban area of Kyoto, the farmlands owned by the peddlers are small. Small amounts of various vegetables are grown. 2) The peddling farmers grow various traditional vegetables. The factors contributing to the continued peddling activities are: the peddling farmers maintain small farmlands and continue their agricultural work while urban land use has expanded; and the traditional vegetables that the peddling farmers grow are closely connected to the daily food of ordinary local people.

In order to reveal the relationships between physical-geographical conditions and temperature rises in cities, the dependence of the rate of surface air temperature rise on urban surface cover was compared for different physical-geographical conditions for cities in Japan. The monthly mean temperatures observed in 74 sites selected to fulfill specific criteria from 1964 to 2011 and land use data categorized into 11 types, at 100 m spatial resolution, including buildings and roads, were used. The rate of the monthly mean of the daily mean temperature rise for the coastal sites has a positive correlation with the distance from the coastline. The rate of temperature rise was found to be positively correlated with an urban cover index for the coastal observation sites within 7 km from the coastline, and for the sites including the coastal sites more than 7 km away from the coastline and the inland sites. The change in the rate of temperature rise with respect to the urban cover index is higher for the inland sites than for the coastal sites within 7 km of the coast. The largest difference in the rates is shown in winter. The rate of temperature rise at sites more than 7 km away from the coast is similar to those at inland sites. The study has implications for predicting future changes in cities and the greater vulnerability of inland cities to enhanced warming.