Takano Takeshi works at a public-sector corporation promoting agriculture in the village of Niibo-mura, on the island of Sado. During his time off he's probably busy outside, bringing abandoned land back into production as rice fields. He's making conditions ideal for the things toki eat, such as loaches and pond snails.

His father, the late Takano Takaji, once counted 27 toki in his rice field in a mountainous area in 1931, and used to say that the color of all those birds made it seem like the whole field was blooming with peonies. But by the 1940s, their forest habitat in the mountains had been cut down and there were fewer rice fields for the birds to use as feeding grounds. Then his father went with other villagers to search in different places for food for the birds. Whatever they found was scattered in part of a rice field. Takano says he remembers looking at the birds eating their fill then flying off to their nesting grounds. "That's when I decided, in my boyish enthusiasm, to work with others to protect the birds." Now he's restoring rice fields in the area, guided by his father's wish to see toki once more in the sky.

His labors are getting a boost from a non-governmental organization called Network for Sustainable Rural Communities, which works throughout Japan to protect rural land and bring it back to its former state.

Takeda Jun-ichi, the head of the organization's secretariat, explains: "When we talk about rural communities (sato-chi) and local hills and mountains (sato-yama), our ideal is people taking advantage of the gifts of nature while living in harmony with creatures of the wild. One way to achieve a symbiotic relationship with nature is to cultivate rice fields while conserving woodlands.

"The conservation work at Niibo-mura includes the efforts of about 30 volunteers, most of them island residents. Collaborating with people off the island helps them realize the advantages of a symbiotic relationship with nature, and this gives the village a greater sense of purpose. With conservation, we can ensure that the toki will have food to eat, and make farming villages a better place for people."