Akame

CODE: NICE-24L-AK17

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. 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 Non-profit organization (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

Volunteers will acquire the knowledge of conserving SATOYAMA and solving the environmental issues.