Written by Toshikuni Okamura, Ph.D. in Agriculture, Chairman of the Board of Directors, NPO Kinshizen-Morizukuri Kyokai

In the 1970s, people in German-speaking Europe became aware of the rapid loss of wild plants and animals from familiar spaces such as urban and rural areas, and called the spaces where wild plants and animals live and grow biotopes, and began activities to preserve and restore these spaces. This idea was initially combined with measures to deal with the degradation of river environments, which also led to the development of a new river construction method in Germany and Switzerland, known as the Near Natural River Method. Of course, biotopes are not limited to rivers, ponds, and other waterfront areas, but also include forests, grasslands, and bare cliffs, and refer to spaces where unique organisms can live and thrive.

Biotope (German: Biotop) is a term for the habitat of a biological community. It is a German-born concept that means a habitat for living organisms. It is a German-born concept that refers to the habitat of living organisms. The word was coined from the Greek words bio (life) + topos (place). In other words, it can also refer to the alteration of the natural environment to make it more habitable for living organisms, or the restoration and rehabilitation of conditions that have been damaged by development.

Biotope is a biological term, but the German Federal Nature Conservation Office defines a biotope as “an organically connected community of organisms, i.e. a biosociety (a certain combination of species). The German Federal Nature Conservation Agency defines a biotope as “a habitat for an organically connected community of organisms, i.e. a community of organisms (a community of organisms composed of a certain combination of species). In other words, a biotope is “the smallest geographical unit of habitat that is clearly distinguishable from the surrounding area,” and is distinguished from an ecosystem in this respect. In other words, an ecosystem is composed of a biotope (environment) and the biological communities that inhabit it (contents). Wikipedia “biotope"

Biotope and ecological bridge along the river 

In the 1980s, this concept was brought to Japan, and the “KONAN river construction method” (later called “multi-natural river construction”) was tried in many places. 1997 saw the revision of the River Law, and since then, the KONAN concept has been adopted in farmlands, roads, and urban planning, and various biotopes have been developed in the process. Various biotopes were also developed. In addition, activities were linked to environmental education in elementary and junior high schools, and ponds, waterways, and rice paddies were installed in school yards to attract plants and animals to the water's edge.

 

In Hokkaido, the Ainu people lived as indigenous peoples, and after the Meiji Restoration, the forests and rivers where they lived became uninhabited land and were administered by the state, making it difficult for Ainu culture to survive until recently.In 2019, the “Ainu People Support Law” (New Ainu Law) was finally enacted, and for the first time the Ainu people were In addition to traditional cultural promotion and welfare policies, efforts to resolve various issues, including regional and industrial development, have begun. However, the forests and rivers called iols, which used to be used as a place to collect materials for food, clothing, and shelter, have already been developed in various ways, and many of the spaces that once served as iols have either been lost or have been transformed.

Following the momentum created by the revision of the River Law, in the 1990s, as part of the maintenance of degraded river environments in Hokkaido, in addition to improving flood control safety, the development of wooded areas as biotopes has been vigorously pursued as a measure to replace the natural environment lost due to river maintenance. The ecological mixed seeding and planting method has been adopted as the main method for the development of these wooded areas, and to date there are 700 such areas in the entire Hokkaido region, covering nearly 350 hectares.

Ior is the place where the Ainu people live, where they catch animals and gather wild plants. In the past, when the Ainu people called Hokkaido “akoromosiri” (our land), the whole of Hokkaido was their iol. The Ainu, who supported most of their lives as hunter-gatherers, were very careful in naming places to communicate with their fellow Ainu. When we learn the meanings of place names that we are familiar with, we are truly amazed and respect the wisdom of our ancestors. These Ainu place names are proof that Hokkaido was the Ior of the Ainu people. Ior and Ainu Place Names” by the Ainu People's Culture Foundation

 

Tokachi River flood control forest consisting of various native species created on the embankment fill (July 2, 2024).