When the Millennium Lamp of Aso Grassland Flickers: A Future Map of Burning and Ecology - 2025 Perspectives

When the Millennium Lamp of Aso Grassland Flickers: A Future Map of Burning and Ecology - 2025 Perspectives

The grasslands of Aso are a unique ecosystem that has been maintained for more than 1,000 years by human activities such as burning grass and grazing. However, in recent years, the grasslands have become difficult to manage due to the aging of the population and the downsizing of livestock operations, and as a result are facing a serious crisis of deforestation. When grasslands are lost, plants and insects, which were designed to be burned, lose their habitat, and biodiversity declines sharply. In addition, since grassland soil is porous and has high groundwater recharge capacity, deforestation will impair the stable supply of groundwater and affect the water cycle in Kyushu, where Aso is the headwaters. Furthermore, the Aso grasslands have high value as a cultural landscape with a combination of farming and religious rituals, and their loss would lead to the loss of spiritual culture and regional identity. In response to this situation, the government, local residents, NPOs,
and corporate volunteers are collaborating to expand wildland burning, and new approaches to grassland management combining grazing restoration and eco-tourism are being promoted. The crisis of the Aso grasslands is not merely an environmental issue, but an important question of how to pass on to the future the cultural nature that people and nature have created together.