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Saga's first OECM site — and what "Nature Positive" means here

Karatsu Farm & Food manages the Yokomakura site in Ouchi-machi, Karatsu City — the first OECM site in Saga Prefecture — an area certified by Japan's Ministry of the Environment and registered internationally as an OECM (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures) on the global database Protected Planet. Here, "Nature Positive" is not a slogan but daily practice: we work where nature, people and community can keep going together, advancing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) with both feet on the ground.

The site is a living satoyama — a managed landscape where farmland, paddies and waterways interlock, and where human activity and a wide range of living things overlap. SATOYAMA is increasingly studied abroad as practical wisdom for balancing livelihoods with healthy ecosystems, and Yokomakura is one place where that wisdom is being put to work.

▶ Ministry of the Environment "ecojin" feature on the Yokomakura OECM Site (Japanese)

Yokomakura, Saga's first OECM site — Saga Prefecture's first OECM site: the Yokomakura site in Ouchi-machi, Karatsu

A certified OECM site, re-certified under Japan's new biodiversity law

The Yokomakura OECM Site was first certified in the latter half of fiscal 2023, and was formally re-certified in 2025 as an OECM site under Japan's Act on the Promotion of Biodiversity-Increasing Activities. It was recognized for meeting several important value criteria:

An ecosystem characteristic of secondary-nature environments, represented by satoyama
A source of natural resources that has long supported local traditional crafts and seasonal events
Habitat — actual or highly likely — for rare flora and fauna, including the Japanese clawed salamander and the Japanese honeybee

These layered values position Yokomakura as an important satoyama to pass on to future generations — and connect it to Japan's 30by30 Alliance and the GREEN×EXPO 2027 National Partnership Program.

Onibi-taki, a traditional fire event at Yokomakura — "Onibi-taki", a traditional fire ritual at Yokomakura. Cutting bamboo for it doubles as appropriate thinning and protection of the bamboo grove.

What we restore and monitor

Conservation here is hands-on and evidence-based. We carry out biodiversity surveys together with Saga University and the Ministry of the Environment, and run year-round restoration work: salamander surveys (a clean-water indicator species), planting Fujibakama for the long-migrating Asagimadara butterfly, and sowing rice for our "OECM site rice".

The Karatsu Honeybee Project keeps native Japanese honeybee colonies with students of Karatsu Minami High School, and is registered in the GREEN×EXPO 2027 National Partnership Program. Our site and its "OECM site rice" have been featured in the Ministry of the Environment's Kyushu presentations and in its Nature Positive promotion seminars.

Biodiversity survey with the Ministry of the Environment and Saga University at Yokomakura — Biodiversity surveys at Yokomakura with the Ministry of the Environment and Saga University

Karatsu Honeybee Project with Karatsu Minami High School — The Karatsu Honeybee Project — native honeybee keeping with Karatsu Minami High School and local residents

Japan's first Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC) site — connected to the world

Yokomakura is the first community in Japan within Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC), a worldwide movement that uses nature's own capacity to recover and spreads positive change from the local to the planetary scale. Through this network, a small satoyama in Karatsu is connected directly to people around the world.

Last year, guests from France visited Yokomakura through ERC; this year, on their introduction, two more volunteers from France came to stay. One visitor brings the next — and that chain is exactly how international funders, researchers and communities have come to discover our work.

International ERC volunteers from France at Yokomakura — Volunteers from France staying at Yokomakura through the ERC network

Showcased to the public — Daimaru's Nature Positive Christmas (since 2023)

As part of a three-year strategic partnership with Daimaru (Daimaru Fukuoka Tenjin / Hakata Daimaru), Karatsu Farm & Food has cooperated since 2023 with the department store's annual "Nature Positive Christmas" tree — a Tenjin landmark visited by roughly 2.2 million people each season. The initiative turns a major commercial space into a medium for communicating OECM sites to a broad public audience.

The 2025 edition was themed "Legacy", and our cooperation continues in 2026. For an organization working toward biodiversity, reaching millions of everyday visitors — not only specialists — is itself a meaningful form of restoration: it grows the circle of people who care.

Kyushu & the Global Nature Positive Summit 2026

In July 2026, Kyushu hosts a landmark international event: the Global Nature Positive Summit 2026 (GNPS 2026), held on 14–15 July (with an excursion day on 16 July) at Kumamoto-Jo Hall. It is organized by the Nature Positive Initiative and the Japan Committee for IUCN, and co-hosted by Japan's Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The first summit was held in Sydney in 2024.

Karatsu sits within Kyushu's growing network of OECM sites, and our site has been featured in the Ministry of the Environment's presentations in the lead-up to the summit. As Kyushu welcomes the world this summer, Yokomakura is one local, working example of nature-positive practice on the ground.

▶ Global Nature Positive Summit 2026 — official site

For companies — TNFD, ESG and the OECM Site Support Certificate

We welcome companies, local governments and institutions that want to support biodiversity at a certified site. Through Japan's OECM Site Support Certificate scheme — operated by the Ministry of the Environment from 2025 — your support can become official evidence for CSR activities, TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures), ESG disclosure and IR materials.

Ways to support (all eligible for the certificate):

Funding — donation, partnership contribution, or purchase of products
Technical & monitoring know-how — ecological surveys, biodiversity monitoring
Employee volunteering — satoyama maintenance, biodiversity observation, planting
Materials support & joint events — environmental education, communications, promotion

Partnering with Karatsu Farm & Food is a clear way to show, to society, your stance as a company that lives alongside nature. We will propose a way to take part that fits your interests and strengths.

Regenerative tourism at Yokomakura with Kyushu University students — Regenerative tourism at the site with university students

Visit us, or collaborate

For companies pursuing nature-related disclosure, an on-site visit can serve as TNFD supplier-visit evidence. We host study visits and regenerative-tourism programs in Kyushu that combine the Yokomakura site with our ocean-plastic and Precious Plastic work — and the relationship can run both ways: when we visit overseas partners, we can introduce their conservation work to audiences in Japan.

▶ Regenerative tourism & corporate study visits
▶ Precious Plastic Karatsu — Japan's hub for plastic upcycling
▶ Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Get in touch

We welcome enquiries from foundations, funds, companies, NGOs, research institutions and local governments. You can reach us in English at kojima@karatsu-f-f.com. We read and write English well; for phone or video calls, having an interpreter helps, so please let us know your preferred language when you contact us. To support our work directly, you can also donate via Syncable.

About the organization

Karatsu Farm & Food

A non-profit based in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, Japan, working on ocean-plastic solutions, the circular economy, environmental education (ESD) and the management of a certified OECM site. As the manager of Saga's first OECM-registered site at Yokomakura, and as Japan's first Ecosystem Restoration Communities site, we connect a small satoyama to the world — and welcome companies, funders and partners pursuing nature-positive goals. Think Locally, Act Globally.