Abstract
Asuka Village is a rural area where many people visit from urban areas to enjoy historical landscape. The landscape is provided by the harmony of the traditional farm land and historical inheritances. In order to preserve the landscape, the government applied the scheme preserving farm land from urbanization. On one side the scheme restricts land-use, on the other side the scheme prepares the system of public purchase of such land. The scheme has been worked successful. However, in recent years, devastated farm land is increasing, and farm land consolidation project is progressing. These are posing a threat to landscape. The objectives of this study are therefore to: (1) assess whether the benefits accruing from the present scheme exceed the costs (public expenditure arising from the scheme) ; (2) consider the application of new schemes preserving farm land from devastation or consolidation on the basis of the benefits accruing from these schemes . This study adopts contingent valuation method and travel cost method to estimate these benefits in terms of use values to visitors. The results of this study are summarized as follows.
(1) The annual benefits accruing from the present scheme are estimated 12.6-11.6 hundred millions yen, which are 2.8-2.5 times the costs. Thus the present scheme appear to be justified. (2) The annual benefits of preserving farm land from devastation are estimated 12.6-10.0 hundred millions yen, which are close on the benefits accruing from the present scheme. It means that the new scheme preserving farm land from devastation is necessary in addition to the present scheme. The annual benefits of preserving farm land from consolidation are estimated 10.7-6.3 hundred millions yen. It means that the farm land consolidation project leads to serious social cost, and necessity of careful thought for the cost where these projects are executed.
