Global importance

The Aso Grasslands spreads around the active Aso volcano craters and the huge caldera. Naturally, the volcanic soil and the geographic conditions of the area are unfavorable for farming, but the people in the area have adapted themselves to the challenging environment for generations by engaging in multiple agricultural activities to efficiently make the best use of lands. They have made improvements on the volcanic soil of the cold uplands and have cultivated the area by creating paddies and dry fields for farming. They have also engaged in grasslands management through activities such as burning, grazing and mowing, and forests management for water conservation and log production. These activities have resulted in rich and sustainable agricultural practices which have been carried on for over one thousand years. It also shaped a remarkable landscape and has helped many rare plants and species to survive in the area. The Aso Grasslands is also designated as a National Park and a Global UNESCO Geopark.

Living with the volcano, which causes severe damage to the crops once it erupts, many traditional rituals and festivals developed to pray and give thanks for their harvests and is until today a part of the people’s livelihoods in the area.

Food and livelihood security

Agriculture (including stockbreeding) is a major industry in the Aso region. The total annual agricultural production value is 29 billion yen: rice and vegetables each constitute about 6 billion yen (about 20%) and stockbreeding about 13 billion (about 50%) (2006). 20% of the local people are employed in the primary sector industry and the number of farmers in the Aso region who engage in agriculture as their main job is 5,730 (2010). Forestry is also a major industry. The log production area is 82,325㎡ (2010) and its production value is about 2.3 billion yen (2009). Mushrooms are also grown in the forest and this industry adds another 300 million yen to the total annual production value (2009).

The unique Aso area is a tourist destination and has 17 million tourists visiting annually (2011). Eco tourism and green tourism in the area are becoming more popular. The Akaushi (the Japanese red cattle) grazed in the area has a unique and delicious meat flavor and the good balance of lean and fat is popular with health-conscious consumers. Adapting to the highland cool and rainy climate, there are various agricultural productions, including rice which is the cultivated main crop with other local vegetables.

Agrobiodiversity

Today there is a variety of agriculture flourishing in this area, such as rice farming, outdoor vegetable horticulture, greenhouse horticulture, stockbreeding, among others. There are many kinds of species living in the area, some of which are rare and/or endemic. The cool climate and the human activities in the grasslands helped these species to survive, whereas in other parts of Japan they have vanished because of the climate change after the glacial period. There are also various agricultural productions in the area, including endemic and local vegetables, such as Aso-takana (a special indigenous plant grown in the volcanic soils in the cold upland climate), Akado-imo (a kind of taro potato with red leaf and edible stems), Tsurunoko-imo (a kind of taro only grown in volcanic and infertile soils), and Kurona (a leafy vegetable grown in winter). The Aso region is also a rainy district, and the forest and grasslands also work as a filter to produce mineral-rich underground water, which provides the region with abundant natural springs and is a water resource of many big rivers. Most of the forest in this area is artificially made from cedar or cypress trees.

The thick black soil of the Aso area is the result of three factors: the grasslands vegetation, the volcanic activities and the burning of grass by humans. 13% of Japan used to be covered with grasslands until the beginning of the 20^th century, but the areas decreased and today it only covers 1% of the land. Aso Grasslands now consists almost half of the grasslands in Japan today.

Local and traditional knowledge systems

The grasses of the Aso Grasslands have been utilized cyclically in various ways and has been closely connected to agricultural and stockbreeding activities as well as to people’s livelihoods. The grasslands are used as grazing land for cows and horses, and also mowed to feed the animals, or for fertilizers for the soils for agriculture. Animal’s manure is used as fertilizers. The grasses were also used as bedding for the barns, as materials for house roofs, or as biomass fuels.

The traditional knowledge of burning, grazing and mowing the grasslands is still practiced today. The burning which takes place from February to April prevents the growth of trees and reduces the number of species that are considered unfavorable for the plants, and helps the grass to sprout. Limiting the area of burning requires heavy work and knowledge. Burning is an efficient way to manage the Aso Grasslands, which is vast, geographically complicated and steep. Grazing helps to maintain the grasslands, and communities are taking in cattle from another area to cover the shortage of the number of cattle due to modernization. Mowing also contributes to maintaining biodiversity, by controlling the dominant species of the area.

Cultures, value systems and social organizations

The culture of the Aso region has been deeply related to the Aso volcano, which can damage the food crops once it erupts. People have prayed to the volcano for the good growth of the crops since ancient times. Many agricultural rituals and festivals are practiced until today, starting from a ceremony of a rice planting song on the new year to a ceremony to thank the rice harvest in autumn.

Most of the grasslands are managed by cooperative units of communities as their “common lands”. The rights over the grasslands are not divided into individual property rights but are rather managed by the community as a whole, and it usually requires the consent of all members of the cooperative to change the use of the area. Many rules exist for mowing so that the grass is equally distributed to each household of the community, and to prevent over-exploitation. The system prevented the land from being overexploited and helped manage and maintain the Aso Grasslands cooperatively as a community.

Landscapes features

In the Aso area, many human activities developed by adapting to the different geographical conditions inside and outside of the caldera, and formed a broad landscape of grasslands, forests, paddy fields and villages. The grasslands have been shaped with dynamic volcanic activities over the millennia and by human activities such as burning, grazing and mowing. The forest contributes to water management, grasslands conservation and maintaining the mountainous steep slopes. The paddy fields are organized in a very neat and orderly style. The magnificent spectacle created by these human activities attracts a great number of tourists from around the world.