Consultation's role in balancing the conservation of terraced rice paddy field landscapes and the improvement of farming environments in designated Important Cultural Landscape areas

This paper describes restoring and repairing terraced rice field landscape components within designated Important Cultural Landscape areas. The aim is to elucidate how conflicting issues regarding landscape conservation and enhancement of the farming environment were addressed through consultations prior to proposing changes to the existing state to the government. To ascertain the content of consultations for landscape and farming environment coordination during preliminary consultation, as well as the actual construction work, questionnaires and interviews were conducted with the municipal government. Consultations were predominantly conducted to ensure both landscape conservation and, notably, to reinforce disaster prevention measures, resulting in decisions to utilize artificial materials such as concrete or to modify construction methods. During the consultation sessions, landowners’ preferences were initially respected, followed by discussions that primarily focused on landscape considerations, with cost being a key factor. The cumulative landscape ramifications of similar future changes are anticipated to be substantial.