Changes in Agricultural Landscape Management by the Local Community in the Noto Peninsula, Japan

摘要

In recent years, efforts to conserve local agricultural landscapes have become increasingly important in many parts of the world.Many traditional agricultural landscapes have been preservedthrough various agricultural use and management practices by local communities.However, theamount of abandoned farmlands and woodlands has increased due to changes in the lifestyle of rural residents and the aging of rural areas.This study focuses on changes in agricultural land useand management by a local community in Japan, particularly the changes in the subsistence use ofland.Based on the results, this study also considers the potential of subsistence use for the conservation of traditional agricultural landscapes.Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan wasselected as the study area.This area was registered as a Globally Important Agricultural HeritageSite(GIAHS) in 2011.Land use and land cover were examined using aerial photographs.Toclassify land covers, different agricultural use and management practices were examined.Beforethe 1970s, all parts of the woodlands and farmlands in each study site were well used and man-aged.Particularly in the woodlands, commercial use and subsistence use existed simultaneously inthe same location.In the 2000s, commercial use of the woodlands and dry fields, including timberproduction, charcoal making, and chestnut production, was significantly reduced.On the otherhand, subsistence use, including vegetable production in the common dry fields, and fuel andmushroom gathering in some of woodlands, continued.In addition, the case studies of the sites inthe Noto Peninsula indicate the effectiveness of subsistence use, which suggest low income as thekey approach to adopt for rebuilding agricultural landscapes by the local community.