Landcare, Water Resource Management and Sustainable Development: Implications from a Case Study of a Community-Based Approach to Micro-Hydropower Development and Social Issues in Gokase Township, Japan

Abstract

This paper aims at clarifying the distinctive features of “Landcare”, which is a well-known movement in Australia and began in Victoria in 1986, from both theoretical and practical points of view. Landcare is a distinctive approach that adopts a “bottom-up” (community-based) and holistic methodology for tackling local environmental problems and has contributed not only to solving local environmental problems effectively, but also to building social resilience and community networking to adapt to the crises that farmers have faced in Australia. Examining the characteristics and principles of Landcare in light of sustainable development (SD) theory, this paper argues that an existing micro-hydropower development project in the town of Gokase in Japan operates on similar principles to Landcare, i.e., the production and preservation of capital assets (natural and produced), knowledge sharing, and institutions for creating networks among the residents in Gokase toward sustainable community development.