Abstract
This study analyzed environmental conservation, rural economic revitalization, and global environmental conservation activities in Tochigi Prefecture’s Nakagawa-machi. To extract valuable information on rural activities, the study employed a survey questionnaire of various stakeholders regarding their attitudes and activities. We also evaluated carbon dioxide emission reduction in connection with eggplant production. Then, we conducted another survey about consumer attitudes toward carbon emissions from eggplant production and special methods that lower carbon emissions in eggplant production. The results of these surveys were as follows: participants, like forest owners, highly evaluated the performance of the rural environmental conservation activities; participants, like retailers, also evaluated the positive impact. However, their evaluation of the unclear performance on the environment was not high. The forest owners did not evaluate the rural economic vitalization activities highly. The retailers’ evaluation showed the implications that the repercussion effects of these activities were low. We determined that 60% of carbon dioxide emissions were reduced in connection with environmental conservative agricultural production. Consumers also found certain added value of the product.
