The enactment of the Noto Communique by the Food and Agriculture Organization and Ishikawa Prefectural Government endorses the twinning of GIAHS designated sites between developed and developing countries. Then, the Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi (Japan) and Ifugao Rice Terraces (Philippines) became the first and successful twinning in the world through the Ifugao Satoyama Meister Training Program (ISMTP) that is implemented at the Ifugao State University. The ISMTP is funded by the JICA Grassroots Technical Cooperation Projects: (1) Human Resources Development Program for the Sustainable Development of GIAHS Designated Site, Ifugao Rice Terraces in the Philippines and (2) Strengthening the Twinning between GIAHS designated Sites, Ifugao Rice Terraces and Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi, for Sustainable Development. It was patterned after the Kanazawa University’s Noto Satoyama Satoumi Meister Training Program (NSSMTP) in Japan. Both training programs were able to train Japanese and the indigenous peoples of Ifugao to maximize satoyama services to enhance the socio-economic activities of the community while conserving its landscapes. 

This brought and bridged the Noto and Ifugao people together on information exchange corroborating good practices in both GIAHS and SEPLs sites. One activity that started since 2015 is the annual Philippines-Japan Forum on Satoyama where SEPLs stakeholders convene in the Philippines and in Japan to share, plan and implement various research-based endeavors contributory to SEPLs sustainable use and conservation. Hence, this activity proposal intends to sustain said annual forum while materializing the individual and organizational matching of the Ifugao Satoyama Meister Network and Noto Satoyama Satoumi Meisters Network through research-project implementation. This matching between Noto and Ifugao satoyama meisters is one of the results of the forum in January 2020. It proposes to create a community of practice in Noto and Ifugao to share similar interests anent to SEPLs use through and not limited to enterprising with nature. 

Through the ISMTP, the Ifugao State University began to internationalize its programs on natural and cultural heritage conservation and was recently became a member of the IPSI. This fueled IFSU to expand its network of partners on academic and research exchange and international cooperation. One of the major partner of IFSU is the Kanazawa University (KU) that started its collaboration since 2014 where activities include international internship program on cultural exchange, ISMTP and NSSMTP annual collaborative workshop on GIAHS research-projects, field exposures to Ifugao and Noto satoyama, fora on Noto-Ifugao satoyama among others. These activities also enabled the provincial/prefectural governments of Ifugao and Ishikawa to work together for both regions’ GIAHS and SEPLs sites sustainable development.

This bid‘s purpose is to increase and sustain capacity building of IRT and NSS stakeholders and its meisters to establish matching concepts.