Akame

CODE: NICE-25L-AK11

Work:

Volunteers will do various types of activities such as 1) Forest conservation (cutting trees, branches and maintaining the footpaths, etc.), 2) Agricultural work (taking care of the chickens raised by the free range farming, slaughtering too old chickens (#), harvesting and packaging mushrooms, etc.) and 3) Organizing some environmental events (e.g., to collect edible wild plants, nature observation) in the mountains. #: It's hard for ASSK to keep feeding too old chickens since they don't bear the eggs anymore and feeding is quite costly. Most chicken farms ask the special company to just kill and "throw away" as if they are rubbish with paying 15 yen per chicken, but ASSK does not support this and eats by themselves with deeply appreciating to their value of life.

Accomodation and food

Small traditional house, on the premises of ASSK. Volunteers will cook the meals by themselves.

Location and leisure

Kami-mitani area of Nabari city, 60 km from Osaka. There are famous falls nearby many hikers visit. Other activities - Many opportunities to learn the local wisdom. Sightseeing, short trip (hot springs, famous places here).

Project hosted by

This project is actively working for SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDGs 15 (Life on Land), organized together with a local environmental NPO, Akame no SATOYAMA wo Sodateru Kai (ASSK) since 1999. Since this area is close from big cities Osaka and Nagoya, there were plans to build a golf field and an incinerator, but local people stopped those plans by the movement called National Trust. They founded the group in 1996 to collect donations to buy and protect lands, to accept people who want to enjoy nature, to maintain forests, to create a pond for dragonflies, to host national corps meeting, etc. SATOYAMA needs to be maintained by humans for its biodiversity and water adjustment function. Our ancestors had protected and utilized the forest in ecological and sustainable way, which was neglected by modernization. We will try to revive it by global voluntary power!!

Directions to meeting point

Additional comments

Study theme - Volunteers will acquire the knowledge of conserving SATOYAMA and solving the environmental issues. Participation fee - 18,000 JPY (108 EUR by the rate on 2024 Nov. 3rd) per month till the 3rd month and 9,000 JPY per month from the 4th month of "NICE Volunteers" fee need to be paid in advance either by Card or PayPal. This is used for the project preparation and coordination such as the transportation of the camp leaders while the meals and the accommodation are provided by the local host by free. Odd days are counted as one month (e.g., 170 days are counted as 6 months). Other - The first and last 2 days are On Arrival and Evaluation Seminars in Osaka.