Methods for Establishing Conservation Management Areas on Land with Unfavorable Conditions in Hilled Rural Area

― Case study of conservation management areas in environmental land consolidation project ―

Abstract

It is desirable to conserve farmland in mountainous areas from the viewpoints of stable food supply and the fulfillment of multifunctional roles. However, it is difficult to conserve all farmland in these areas in a declining population, and there is a need for measures to rationally conserve each land through that separates farmland that should be conserved from other land. This study was to clarify the actual conditions and issues of establishment of conservation management area for environmental land consolidation project in hilled rural area that require setting conservation management areas. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 27 districts in Niigata Prefecture, which has the largest number of projects completed by FY2019, and the status of landowners and management methods in the conservation management areas was analyzed using land exchange plans and field interviews. The results revealed that almost all of the conservation management areas were set aside for land with unfavorable conditions, and that land exchange between production areas and conservation management areas was difficult because no one wanted to newly convert land to conservation management areas. In addition, as a method of establishing a rational conservation management areas, the paper discusses the usefulness of a method in which dispersed abandoned farmland is accumulated in a conservation management area as non setting substitute lots, and all landowners jointly acquire them as creating substitute lots.