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Asia-Pacific Environmental Innovation Strategies (APEIS) Research on Innovative and Strategic Policy Options (RISPO)

Good Practices Inventory

Centre for Outdoor Environmental Education: Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP)

Keywords: Children, youth, schools, non-formal education, environmental education centre, outdoor education Strategy: Promoting environmental education by NGOs Environmental areas: All (especially ecosystem and biodiversity conservation) Critical instruments: Organisational arrangements Country: Japan Location: Kiyosato, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan Participants: School children, elementary/junior high schools, environmental educators, local people Duration: Since 1984 Funding: Self

Background: Outdoor education or education “in” the environment is a core element of environmental education, especially for children and youth. However, it requires educational skills as well as an appropriate environment—just to let them play in the field has insignificant educational impacts. Almost by its concept, the appropriate location for such education tends to be rural areas with rich natural surroundings. This suggests the potential of combining rural development with environmental education. The history of Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP) can be traced back to the construction of Seisen-ryo (a dormitory) in 1938 in Kiyosato, on the Southern slope of Yatsugatake Mountains, which is a camp and retreat centre for youth. With “food,” “faith,” “health,” and “hope for youth” as its ideals, KEEP started its activities aiming at building a practical model of an agricultural community. Since its formative years, KEEP has brought not only knowledge about highland farming, but also facilities such as a church and clinic to the then small rural hamlet of Kiyosato. In addition, KEEP has been implementing experimental and educational activities, based on the concept of the founder, Paul Rush.1 Owing to its beautiful nature and farms, it has attracted many visitors, which led to the considerable development of Kiyosato, making it a well-known retreat or sightseeing area. Currently, “international exchange” and “environmental education” have been added to the four ideals above. Its environmental education activities started in 1983 as a joint project with the Wild Bird Society of Japan, and became its own in 1991.

Objectives: The objectives of KEEP’s environmental education division are to develop educational programmes, to train personnel (human resources development), and to support networking. With these objectives, KEEP provides various environmental educational programmes “in” the environment (or outdoor education) for children/youth and the public, training programmes for educators/ facilitators, and international assistance to Asian developing countries.

1 Dr. Rush was a teacher at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, and was instrumental in developing the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in Japan, a service organization within the Anglican Church.

Summary of the Practice

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Description of the activity:

KEEP’s Environmental Education Division is a recognised leader in Japan for environmental education. It has played an important role in promoting nature education since its beginning in the 1980s.2 To provide practical training and educational opportunities for professionals and the general public, it offers lectures, camps, and museum exhibits in an ideal setting of the natural beauty of Kiyosato. KEEP conducts various self-sponsored programmes and commissioned programmes from ministries, local governments, businesses, and schools within a year. Activities of the environmental education division of KEEP can be categorised into the following:3

KEEP Foresters School, which provides one-day and short/long stay programmes as “environmental education camps.” These are designed to help participants to learn from their own experiences from an interdisciplinary perspective. Six hiking trails in KEEP’s extensive site (239 ha) facilitate the learning of participants in the environment.

Yatsugatake Nature Centre, which provide (environmental) information around Yatsugatake for visitors (in collaboration with the government of Yamanashi Prefecture). It provides maps, guides and binoculars for bird watching, a variety of exhibits, periodical magazines and other publications. Films, videos and various kinds of information on the local environment and culture are available at its library and audio-visual halls. It also offers a “guide walk” programme in the rich surrounding natural setting with facilitators and craftwork programmes using trees, leaves and other natural materials to feel the environment.

Yamane Museum, which introduces local endangered species called Yamane (Japanese Dormouse). This museum not only aims to promote research on the conservation of the species but also to develop environmental education programmes featuring them.

Visitors can stay at Seisen-ryo (capacity up to 200 persons), KEEP Nature School4 (150 persons) Forester’s Camp Site (cabins for around 60 persons), and Matsumoto Youth Camp Site (cabins for 72 persons). The large accommodation capacity of KEEP makes it possible to conduct intensive programmes with short and long stays. KEEP’s international assistance project includes Tulgao Project, which is a grassroots rural community development program in the isolated mountain village of Tulgao in the Northern Philippines.

2 Environmental education in Japan is considered to have started with “pollution education” in the 1960s when pollution problems became critical as a result of rapid industrial growth. Environmental education on nature was started to develop in the 1980s. 3 The programmes include “Kiyosato Ecology Camp” to explore the relationship between man and nature through discussion and experiences on various themes such as charcoal, straw, art, etc., which has been a major programme of KEEP since the early years. KEEP also offers a few more kinds of seminars for educators/providers of environmental education. Examples of seminars so far conducted include: Kiyosato interpreters’ camp (for leaders), seminar for project/programme management (for facility staff), seminar for hands-on experience learning method (for leaders), environmental education planning seminar, evaluation seminar for interpreters. 4 KEEP Nature School also provides its own educational activities in which visitors can stay and experience nature, dairy farming, international exchange and other activities while they are not run by its Environmental Education Division.

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Overview The success of KEEP owes much to its organisational arrangements/partnership to its location in a good environment and combination of community development (or agricultural experience in particular) with environmental education. “Good environment” is a prerequisite for quality outdoor education activities, and their sustainable provision is made possible by the “combination of community development activities with environmental education.” The latter also contribute to fostering good relationships with local communities.

Organisational arrangements Location: Good Environment

KEEP emphasizes a “hands-on experience learning method,” which respects participants’ learning through their own experiences rather than a mere knowledge transfer. Facilitators (or rangers) function just as “an intermediary between people and nature.” For such educational activities, a good location with a rich natural environment is essential. As well, it has to be located in an accessible area, rather than deep in the mountains, to attract visitors. KEEP is located in Kiyosato, enjoying the highland environment of Yatsugadake Mountains within two to two and a half hours by train and car from Tokyo. This location has helped KEEP to conduct good quality educational programmes as well as to attract many people.

Combination of Community Development and Environmental Education5 Environmental Education is one of the activities of KEEP, of which community development activities including highland farming, especially dairy farming, are the core. In fact, this combination of environmental education and other activities is a key element of KEEP’s success, for example:

Good Educational Environment The practice of dairy farming provides a good environment for environmental education. It is a valuable experience for participants and visitors not only to see and feel cows and other livestock but also to experience dairy farming tasks such as milking. These experiences can sensitise them towards nature and living in coexistence with it. Sustainable Management

KEEP environmental division manages its own activities from its own income.6 However, it is made possible by support from and synergising effects with other divisions. The sale of goods at shops accounts for 25 percent of the total income of KEEP; that of ice cream, made of the milk from KEEP’s jersey cows, accounts for 13 percent of the total, while accommodation equals 11 percent. Activities at all of the divisions at KEEP including environmental education contribute to these sales, as the participants in the former are at the same time the customers for the latter and vice versa, which in turn leads to the financial stability of each division. These synergistic help to make KEEP financially sustainable.

Contribution to the Local Communities

Projects such as KEEP cannot succeed without the understanding and support of the local people. KEEP has provided Christian lay leadership training, pioneered dairy farming in Japan, introduced new high-altitude agricultural technologies, and brought health and education services to the region. Such contributions and the ideals of KEEP, namely “food,” “faith,” “health,” and “hope for youth,” brought the understanding and support of local people to KEEP’s activities, which is a key to its success.

5 Numerical data here was kindly provided by KEEP Environmental Education Division to the reviewer. 6 The income and expenditure of KEEP Environmental Education Division is around 127 million yen per year, accounting for about 10 percent of the total budget of KEEP.

Critical Instruments

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Educational Impacts Many people participate in KEEP’s various programmes and visit its facilities as is shown by the following data7.

Visitors to KEEP facilities in the Fiscal Year 2003 Yatsugatake Nature Centre: 83,869 (including 170 organisations) Yamane Museum: 24,254 (including 47 organisations)

Participants in the Programmes Organised/Sponsored by KEEP in the Fiscal Year 2003

KEEP Foresters School: 794 Yatsugatake Nature Centre: 1,827 Yamane Museum: 342

Number of Programmes in the Fiscal Year 2003

KEEP Foresters School: Camping- 18 times Day-trip- 37 times (8 cancellations) Commissioned Programmes- 103 organisations

Yatsugatake Nature Centre: Day trips- 105 times8 Yamane Museum: Day trips- 14 times9

As for the participants in the programmes organised or sponsored by the KEEP Foresters School, 20 percent of the participants are in their 20s; 17 percent of them are elementary school students, and 10 percent of them are in their 30s. Fifty percent of its commissioned programmes are for students from pre-school to university.

These programmes are quality-controlled by internal and participatory evaluation. At the KEEP Foresters School, discussion sessions are held based on the result of questionnaires filled out by the participants. At the end of the year, a review meeting is held for the programmes. A similar system is used at Yamane Museum and Yatsugatake Nature Centre.

Financial Sustainability Financial sustainability is especially important for NGO activities. KEEP has achieved financial sustainability owing to the critical instruments as mentioned above, which contributed to the continuous provision of educational activities.

Community Development KEEP has contributed to community development of the Kiyosato area since its establishment. It provided not only the high-altitude agricultural technologies but also health service (clinic), organised harvesting festivals, and other services to the surrounding communities. Nowadays, it also dispatches foreign staff to the local schools for English education. In addition, the “Kiyosato Kodomo Shizen Club” (Kiyosato Kids Nature Club) was established in 2003 to provide programmes at a considerably lower rate for the communities.

7 Data here was kindly provided by KEEP Environmental Education Division to the reviewer. 8 Numbers of the programmes organised/sponsored by KEEP. 9 Numbers of the programmes organised/sponsored by KEEP.

Impacts

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Lessons that can be learned from this practice are as below. • Environmental education centres such as KEEP’s division can provide quality environmental

education programmes. KEEP has made the most of its facilities for environmental education such as highland farming, visitor centres (Yatsugatake Nature Centre, Yamane Museum) and accommodations as well as rich nature surroundings. (See Organisational arrangement/ Partnership in the “Critical Instruments” above.)

• Environmental education centres such as KEEP’s division are better located in an accessible rural

area. It helps to attract urban people and provide them with quality nature education. (See Organisational arrangement/Partnership in the “Critical Instruments” above.)

• Environmental education centres such as KEEP’s division can produce good results when

combined with other activities such as community development (e.g., dairy farming) It enhances the relationship with local communities and in turn receives good support to educational activities. (See Organisational arrangement/Partnership in the “Critical Instruments” above.)

• Environmental education centres such as KEEP’s division can be managed in a financially

sustainable manner. Designed appropriately, KEEP has managed its activities without depending on grants from funding agencies, which is significant for NGOs. (See Financial Sustainability in the “Critical Instruments.”)

• Environmental education centres such as KEEP’s division can also contribute to community

development. This kind of centre not only promotes environmental education but also contributes to community development, as is shown by the services provided by KEEP such as health service, agricultural technologies, etc. (See Community Development in the “Impacts” above.)

There are few obstacles in applying this practice in other countries, as long as the appropriate measures can be taken, especially the ones mentioned in the “Critical Instruments” above. Environmental Education Division, Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP) 3545 Kiyosato, Takane, Kitakoma-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture Tel: 81-551-48-3795; Fax: 81-551-48-2990 E-mail: forester@keep.or.jp Website: http://www.keep.or.jp/ Case reviewer: Ko Nomura (IGES) Information date: 28 August 2004

Lessons Learned

Potential for Application

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