Research at RIHN is organized through five research domains. Each of the first three domains is defined by a “root metaphor,” a metaphor already widely shared across disciplines, and therefore understood as a key area for conceptualization of human-environmental interactions. The latter two domains take up the same phenomena in an explicitly temporal or spatial context.

• CIRCULATION

What is circulation and how does it relate to global environmental problems? Two concepts of circulation are considered in this program. One is the circulation of energy and matter at the earth's surface. Matter includes air, water, chemical components and the living organisms they contain. Such circulations of energy and matter are caused by solar radiation absorbed by the earth's surface systems. In a broad view, the migration of humans around the planet can be considered as a kind of circulation, as can the great amount of material people move from place to place. Circulation describes large-scale spatial and temporal movements that in small-scale may look like flows. The critical issue in regards to global environmental problems is that current change in the biogeochemical circulations that sustain the biosphere is so sudden; it may be irreversible, though this is difficult to predict, as it depends in part on human thought, action and culture.

The recurrent interaction between humanity and nature can also be considered as a kind of circulation. Through economic and technological development, and through its sheer numbers, humankind has gradually transformed the surface of the planet. It has altered existing environments and created wholly new environments, which have in turn become new sites of human-environmental interaction in which new societies have emerged.

Individual research projects in the RIHN Circulation Program are conceptualized and carried out within the above conceptual framework. They cumulatively improve human understanding of the ceaseless motion that composes the biosphere.

• DIVERSITY

The diversity program addresses the loss or degradation of biological diversity - from single species to entire ecosystems - and human cultural diversity, including language, social structure, religion and cosmology. Biological diversity composes the planet as we know it; it is the foundation of all society and human reliance on it is inestimable. Meanwhile, all contemporary societies are the inheritors of past cultural diversity: ideas, technologies, ways of living and systems of belief have been passed from people to people, and have enriched human quality of life and understanding of the cosmos. In recognizing this role of cultural diversity we recognize the basic human rights to safe, healthy, fulfilling lives and peace of mind. These are the essential conditions in which the individual can live with hope and pride.

In a historical context, the current loss of cultural diversity should be seen as part of a large-scale process that threatens biological diversity on Earth, and as an expression of humankind's relationship with nature since the last century. Humanity faces a situation in which the cultures and languages that embrace the thinking that have caused today's global environmental problems are expelling from the world the cultures and languages that have embraced “wise use” and harmony with nature.

The RIHN Diversity Program aims to clarify the formation, maintenance and functions of biological and cultural diversity in various environments. It seeks to identify ways to re-vitalize the idea and practice of “wise use” of nature - to prevent exhaustion of resources and preserve ecosystem services - in order to enhance human wellbeing and ecological integrity.

• RESOURCES

The Resources Program investigates problems deriving from humankind's use or conservation of renewable and non-renewable resources. Humans have always made use of plants and animal species, and have succeeded in domesticating some of these wild resources. Through time, humans were able to increase the amount of food available to them, and to increase their own numbers. At the same time, however, the exploitation of land for agricultural production and for pasture has dramatically decreased forest cover and wild biodiversity.

Formerly, most food was produced and consumed locally; gradually transportation technologies have enabled long-distance trade. At the same time, energy consumption has increased along with “food miles,” and imposed serious environmental loads through the emission of CO2.

Such facts raise the question of how much of a certain resource exists, how much is consumed, what is involved in its extraction, processing, transport, and consumption, what rates of resource “throughput” are ecologically sensible and best promote human wellbeing, and what alternatives may exist. The Resources Program takes an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to such questions.

• ECOHISTORY

The Ecohistory Program investigates circulation, diversity, and resources in terms of historical time. Behind every problem (or phenomenon) there lies, in some measure, the issue of historical causality; this fact underscores the need to comprehend the present through investigation of the past (in Japanese this idea is described by the phrase onko chishin ). As its specific goal, this program contributes its long-term historical and civilizational perspective contemporary and future societies. Like all RIHN research programs, it should elucidate global environmental issues, propose solutions and deepen understanding of humanenvironmental potential.

Focusing on different regions and a range of historical moments, current projects in the Ecohistory Program address the environmental histories of two distinct areas, what might be called the “Asian Green Belt” and the “Eurasian Yellow Belt”. In the former, generally speaking, communities managed to maintain sustainable livelihoods for a period of approximately 10,000 years. In the latter area, many civilizations collapsed within this same period of time. But is this reading of history correct? What distinguishes the conditions of productivity and sustainability between these two regions? This latter question is, ultimately, at the core of this research program; its answer is surely indispensable to human futurability.

• ECOSOPHY

Climate warming is one of the truly global environmental problems. It affects almost all systems of the world, including sea-level, hydrological regime, vegetation, agricultural production, marine life, and so on. On the other hand, most environmental problems are described as specific phenomena - as declining water quality or loss of forest or biodiversity in a particular place - yet these can also be viewed in global perspective. In arid regions, for example, the construction of large reservoirs and irrigation systems has greatly enhanced agricultural productivity. Such transformations of hydrology and landscape have clear local effects, yet as humankind comes to view the biophysical phenomena found in a place as iterations of larger processes, we recognize that the world is characterized by linkage and connection. Water shortage or soil degradation in one area may lead to food shortage or air pollution in another.

Humans have created new global cycles and scales of interaction with nature. The exchange of people, ideas and materials can stimulate human creativity, yet at present there is little agreement of how to establish patterns of exchange that will simultaneously enhance human wellbeing and ecological integrity. This is the fundamental problem of our time.

Projects in this domain examine the manner in which contemporary environmental problems both contribute to and result from global phenomena and processes. These research projects focus on specific social and environmental contexts in which environmental problems are found, the linkages of these problems to social and material phenomena in other places, and on the conceptual models used to describe such interconnection.