Volume 56

Natural resource management is essential for the sustainability of livelihoods. To live in harmony with their natural and cultural resources, local communities build social capital and traditional know-how to manage their environments. This webinar focuses on the current situation of forests in Japan and Australia with an emphasis on risk and disaster management. Yakihata is a traditional way of burning grass in the Japanese Satoyama mountains that has been practiced for many years all over the country and is similar to fuel reduction burning systems in Australia. In the case of Japan, the Yakihata practice is not continued in many places due to depopulation in rural areas; this has resulted in increasing fire risk. In the case of Australia, the lifestyle of rural settlements and a very dry climate in the summer complicate the control of bushfire in forests. The webinar discusses ways to support local initiatives to build collaboration and know-how transfer on disaster prevention and hence creating safer destinations for nature-based tourism.