Abstract

This paper introduces a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approaches to watershed management. The former, familiar to the advanced countries, is characterized by a top‐down, technocratic approach to problems and is generally unsuitable for developing countries. The soft approach is understandable and manageable in scale, sensitive to local environments and concerned with practical management issues — more interested in software than hardware. Two examples from Japan of the soft approach to rural development, in the Yahagi river basin and Lake Biwa basin, are described, and there is a discussion of the problems and possibilities associated with attempting to transfer these experiences to developing countries.

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