Category: Information

From February 22nd to March 15th, 2025, Tamano Hayashi visited Malawi.
Exchanged opinions with VNRC and Sustainable Cape Maclear, who is an innovator working on seedling production in the enclaves and neighboring villages of Lake Malawi National Park, and established an activity plan for future collaboration.
Also measured the weight of the collected bundles of firewood during the rainy season and investigated the population and number of households in the enclaves and neighboring villages of Lake Malawi National Park.

From February 27th to March 8th, 2025, Talandila Kasapila, a long-term researcher at Ehime University, conducted research in Yakushima.
Following on from his on-site research in Yakushima in October last year, he returned to conduct research for his master’s thesis. He was able to conduct academic research and discussions on sustainable environmental management, focusing on how the relationship between humans and nature affects the management, conservation, and sustainability of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the role of community activities in transforming and conserving Yakushima’s ecosystem.

From December 11th to 24th, 2024, Tetsu Sato visited Malawi.
Discussed the details of the schedule and content of Nicholas Chanza’s short-term research program in Japan, scheduled for 2025, and planned an effective collaborative research.
Encouraged future progress in the development of new tour programs and community-based Sato-umi management through discussions with Phillip Kapulula and Oscar Mwenyedawo and stakeholders in Chembe village.

From November 15th, 2024 to January 3rd, 2025, Hopeson Kasiya, a long-term research fellow at the University of Tokyo, conducted research in Malawi.
He conducted face-to-face interviews and questionnaires with local residents and fishermen to grasp and evaluate the current situation regarding resource management activities in three fishing villages on Lake Malawi (Musaka, Mazeze, and Malembo). He also surveyed on awareness of changes in the social-ecological system, and from these results, he was able to collect a huge amount of data that was enough to compile recommendations for improving resource management activities in the future.

From October 30th to November 2nd, 2024, Tetsu Sato and Phillip Kapulula
From October 30th to November 4th, 2024, Rupprecht Christoph and Talandila Kasapila
We had a meeting with key stakeholders for Talandila Kasapila’s master’s thesis. We conducted a joint research project with Phillip Kapulula on tourism resource management. Through dialogue with many stakeholders on the transformation of the relationship between people and nature in Yakushima and through site visits, we were able to accumulate knowledge on the relationship between the World Heritage Site and people’s lives. In particular, we gained new knowledge on the synergy between tourism resource management and other natural resources.

From October 12th to 25th, 2024, Masato Nikaido and Mitsuto Aibara visited Malawi. Conducted environmental DNA experiments with local researchers and technicians at the DNA lab at Chancellor College, University of Malawi. Successfully transferred technology to local researchers and technicians by jointly carrying out almost all steps of environmental DNA analysis and sharing manuals. Shared knowledge about fish species that are likely to be included in environmental DNA by visiting Chirundu in Chembe village and conducting a fish layer survey.