Abstract
Japan’s rural areas are known for their natural environments being a source of ecosystem services. Today, the management and utilization of natural resources are essential themes for the sustainability of rural areas in Japan. And, since population decrease and aging are simultaneously advancing in the rural area, the contribution of the neighboring urban area residents is indispensable. However, empirical studies on how the value of ecosystem services is understood by urban residents and contributes to their intentions in rural development strategies that promote regional vitality by encouraging their behavior change, such as participation in community activities and the purchase of traditional products, are insufficient. This study investigated the influence of public awareness on the hypothesis that ecosystem services are of public-benefit value on investment-related indirect conservation activities. The contingent valuation method was employed to estimate citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) against the results of regional revitalization activities in which unique branding was used for local agricultural products and traditional recipes. A full model analysis of the determinants of WTP was conducted. Revitalization plans for rural areas involving specially branded Japanese pickled vegetables offered ~ 40% added value compared to that of ordinary commodity foods. However, the tendency with regard to ecosystem services as a provider of public benefits was not a significant factor influencing participation in conservation efforts; the two were not correlated. That is, general value recognition of ecosystem services in the agricultural mountain village region and concrete value recognition as a consumption object were not linked.
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The datasets generated during this study are not publicly available but are available on reasonable request.
Notes
The definition and significance of CSV are explained in detail in Porter and Kramer (2011).
Nowadays, in Japan, there are some temporal subsidies for the planning and practice of these activities.
A previous report (Yamashita 2013) did not consider an analysis index; the concept of viewing public benefit is specific to this study.
I had in-depth discussions with schoolteachers and administrative staff who regularly exchange opinions with the subjects of this survey and examined the subjects’ reading skills in advance. Based on that, I prepared a questionnaire with simple sentences so that respondents could understand it easily.
The monthly average price of the US dollar against the Japanese yen (¥) in January 2013 was ¥89.02/ $. Therefore, ¥200 corresponds to about $2.25.
As shown in Table 4, these four patterns are based on a combination of data from two places of sales and the presence or absence of additives (2 × 2).
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This study was funded by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 15H05630, 18H03447, 24780222).
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Yamashita, R. Nexus of the awareness of ecosystem services as a “public-benefit value” and “utility value for consumption”: an economic evaluation of the agricultural culture of Satoyama in Japan. SN Bus Econ 1, 133 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00135-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00135-9