Land-use Change

Land-use change is ubiquitous. This volume, in bringing together a range of studies presented at a Symposium held in Hokkaido, Japan, in August 1987, illustrates this. Urbanization has brought in its train vast changes in peri-urban zones and in distant mountain villages. Political change and population growth have brought with them pressing needs for agricultural land and resettlement. Fiscal policies have led to change in land ownership leading subsequently o change in land use. Changes in food policy lead to the partial withdrawal of support from farmers who then are faced with the task of recasting the land-use basis of their life. Changes in perceptions of the urban environment lead to a new awareness of it as a home for plants and animals as well as people, and to the setting up of nature areas in the city.