Making Japan's Satoyama a Global Hope with Nature-Positive Initiatives

Our company endorses April Dream, an initiative to announce dreams on April 1st. This press release is the dream of "NPO Karatsu Farm&Food."

NPO Karatsu Farm&Food announces its dream through the April Dream project: to share the wisdom of "people and nature coexisting" inherent in Japan's Satoyama as a practical model for nature-positive initiatives to the world.

---

Currently, approximately 1 million species on Earth are facing extinction.

75% of land has already been significantly altered, and over 85% of wetlands have been lost.

The rate of species extinction is tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years.

The UN scientific body IPBES warns: "Our way of life cannot be sustained if this continues."

Meanwhile, a different change is occurring in Japan.

The number of adopters of Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is the highest in the world, marking the beginning of an era where companies confront nature.

However, according to a WWF Japan survey (August 2025), only 18% of the 65 companies that disclosed TNFD were actually able to analyze their nature-related dependencies and impacts based on location. The reality is that most companies have made declarations but have yet to implement them on the ground.

That's why we are taking action "from the field."

Not just "protecting" nature, but "increasing" it. That is the hopeful path of nature-positive (nature restoration).

---

The answer lies in Satoyama.

Did you know that the word "SATOYAMA" is used as is in Roman letters overseas?

Japan's Satoyama, where rice paddies, waterways, forests, and human life have been nurtured as one, is a unique crystallization of wisdom that balances biodiversity and human livelihoods. The Ministry of the Environment also promotes the "SATOYAMA Initiative" as an international collaboration.

However, Satoyama is currently rapidly disappearing due to the aging of rural communities, abandoned cultivation, and a lack of successors.

Faced with this reality, we chose to act rather than lament.

From Saga Prefecture's first Nature Coexistence Site to the world.

Karatsu Farm&Food operates as a management organization for the "Nature Coexistence Site" certified by the Ministry of the Environment in the Yokomakura district of Ochi-cho, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture.

The Yokomakura Nature Coexistence Area is Saga Prefecture's first certified site. It also received formal certification based on the "Act on Promotion of Activities for Enhancing Biodiversity" in fiscal year 2025. It is also registered as Japan's first activity base for the International Ecosystem Restoration Community ERC.

Here's what's happening now:

• Regenerating approximately 5 hectares of abandoned rice paddies with local residents and selling them as "Nature Coexistence Site Rice"

• Habitat conservation activities for rare species, protecting streams where salamanders live

• Karatsu Honeybee Project (covered by NHK Saga, FBS) involving Karatsu Minami High School and local residents

• Volunteer tourism where international volunteers from France, Denmark, etc., participate in Satoyama conservation

• Fieldwork for APU (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University) international students to learn about Nature Coexistence Sites

• Implementation of biodiversity surveys in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Saga University

Yokomakura is now a "living site for nature-positive initiatives" where local residents, high school students, university students, international volunteers, and researchers work together to protect and increase Satoyama's nature.

---

To all companies.

In Japan, which has the highest number of TNFD disclosures in the world, addressing nature-related risks is now at the core of ESG management.

However, actually "understanding nature-related dependencies and impacts on the ground" is not easy.

Karatsu Farm&Food's Nature Coexistence Site, Yokomakura, is a practical field that supports corporate nature-positive management from the ground up.

By utilizing the "Nature Coexistence Site Support Certificate System," which the Ministry of the Environment will fully implement from 2025, your company's support activities can be officially used for CSR, TNFD, and ESG information disclosure.

There are various forms of support.

Financial contributions (donations, sponsorship fees), provision of technology/know-how (environmental surveys, monitoring), employee-participatory volunteering (Satoyama maintenance, biodiversity observation), joint events, and educational programs—all are eligible for the support certificate.

From "companies declaring nature-positive" to "companies practicing nature-positive on the ground."

Why not take that first step together from Karatsu's Satoyama?

▶ Inquiries: info@karatsu-f-f.com

▶ About Nature Coexistence Site support: https://karatsu-f-f.com/30by30.html

---

Our Dream

To spread the Yokomakura nature-positive model throughout Kyushu by 2030, and eventually to Asia and the world.

To realize a "Nature-Positive Economy"—an economy where both regions and companies prosper as nature flourishes—starting from Karatsu and Yokomakura.

And for Japan's Satoyama to become a global hope in confronting the climate change and biodiversity crises.

This is our serious dream.

[NPO Karatsu Farm&Food Overview]

Location: 3-7-22 Higashikaratsu, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture

Established: 2019

Main activities: Management of Environment Ministry-certified, Saga Prefecture's first Nature Coexistence Site (Yokomakura, Ochi-cho), Precious Plastic Karatsu (plastic resource recycling), ESD environmental education, beach cleanups, Satoyama conservation

Total activity participants: 22,689 people

Exhibitor at EXPO2025 Osaka, Kansai Japan Blue Ocean Dome

WEB: https://karatsu-f-f.com

"April Dream" is a project by PR TIMES where companies announce their future dreams on April 1st. We are seriously committed to realizing this dream.