Biodiversity conservation planning in rural landscapes in Japan: Integration of ecological and visual perspectives

Rural landscapes have been recognized as important for the conservation of biodiversity as buffers for protected areas and as habitat themselves. Such landscapes in Japan, known as satoyama, currently attract much conservation attention because of their support for biodiversity and other functions and because they are being lost rapidly. The objective of this study was to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity in rural landscapes by integrating ecological and visual dimensions of landscape using a case of the Arai-Keinan region, Niigata, Japan. Following the coarse-filter approach of biodiversity conservation, this study focused on habitat/landscape-level characteristics of biodiversity, wherein landscape was the platform for the integration. The base information for analyses was produced by interpreting aerial photographs taken at 3 times between 1947 and 1999. The major landscape changes were associated with agricultural intensification, marginalization, and ecological succession. The ecological perspectives involved two studies on the consequences of land-use and land-cover changes in the habitat amounts for selected species. One was a field habitat survey, which considered native frogs---a group of species closely associated with traditional rural landscapes. The other was an animal energetics modeling, which considered the Japanese serow Capricornis crispus---a species associated with forests. The results suggested that both agricultural intensification and marginalization reduced the amount of suitable habitat for native frogs, though the latter benefited the Japanese serow. The spatial patterns of landscape changes are expected to have effects on the rate of frog habitat reduction. The visual perspectives involved photograph-based semantic differential surveys, with particular focus on differences between farmers and naturalists. The results suggested that the perceptions of stewardship and openness were important for farmers, whereas those of naturalness and biodiversity were important for naturalists. This study of ecological and visual dimensions of rural landscapes exemplify the importance of four planning considerations: (1) multiple perspectives to view landscapes; (2) landscape-focused approach; (3) mapping as a tool; and (4) consideration of temporal dimensions. Consideration of all these issues is important for effective and proactive conservation planning and implementation, in order to promote rural landscapes that can be expected to bring long-lasting success.