2005 年 7 巻 1 号 p. 11-28
Nishimeya village in Aomori Prefecture is famous as the main gateway to the Shirakami Mountains, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site (WHS), located in northernmost Honshu, Japan. The village has suffered from crop (mainly apple) damage caused by Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata since the 1980s. To protect crops, the Village Office implemented a monkey patrol project (Nishimeya-mura Animal Patrol or NAP) manned by urban volunteers to drive away monkeys during the growing and harvesting seasons of 2002 and 2003. A survey of 121 farmers and 82 urban volunteers and interviews with officials of the "Planning and Tourism" and "Agriculture, Forestry, and Construction" sections of the village, was used to evaluate the effects of NAP in protecting crop fields and orchards against monkeys and in satisfying volunteers wishing to enjoy rural tourism in the scenic mountains and forests of the Shirakami area. The results showed that the NAP was successful in realising its goals and was accepted by both farmers and volunteers. Unfortunately, there is no prospect of the NAP project lasting into the future, irrespective of its success, because of difficulties in the village, e.g. 1) few villagers have sufficient experience as leaders or in tourism to engage the NAP, 2) more than half of the farmers older than 63 years of age intend to retire from farm work within the next decade because they lack successors to take over the hard work, and 3) the village administration has lost the active volition to maintain and develop the agri-community and tourism in the village.
