東広島市における山林の利用・管理とその社会経済的環境からみた村落類型

This paper attempts to classify rural communities in a suburban area, Higashi-Hiroshima City with using multivariate analysis of the statistics both on forest management and on the socio-economic environment such as the rural community and agriculture. Almost all of the forests in this region are pine (Pinus densiflora) forests. At first, the principal components on forest management were analyzed, and three major components were obtained. They are forest management by rural communities, economic utilization laying stress on development and utilization in forestry and maintenance. Of the rural community, two major components were obtained and they were the inflow of newcomers with keeping the functions of rural communities, and the heterogeneity of the social structure and mixed settlement in rural communities. Of the agriculture, floating of farmland and weakening of agricultural management was obtained as one major component. With using the above six components, the rural communities were classified into four types by the cluster analysis (Ward's method). Type I : The characteristic of forests in this type is the high ratio of the forest area and broad-leaved forests based on the varied natural environment such as inchlination of slopes and altitude. In this type, the ratio of forest owners with artificial forests is also high, and forests are managed by private ownership and little developed. But the degree of forest maintenance is not higher than other types. The socio-economic environment of this type can be regarded as the region in which the characteristic of agricultural village is highly remained excluding lower activity of social function in the community. In addition, the decrease of paddy fields and abandoned cultivated fields are outstanding, so the basis of agriculture may become weakened in the near future. Type II : The characteristic of forests in this type is the high ratio of communal forests. Broad-leaved forests are rarely seen in this type, while pine forests are well remained. It is supposed that in communal forest management system there must be a lot of opportunities to maintain pine forests as the Matsutake mushroom (Tricholoma matutake) forest. In this type, the agricultural basis is highly stable. For example, the ratio of farm household decreasing, the ratio of farm household with the abandonment of cultivated field and the ratio of agricultural communities with diversified cultivated fields are the lowest among all types. Type III : Forests in this type tend to be little used and managed in spite of the high ratio of the forest area. Such a tendency is indicated in variables such as the ratio of forest owners with artificial forests, the ratio of forest land owners with weeding and the ratio of farm household forest owners which sold forest products. The character of socio-economic environment in this type is low function of community management. Type IV : Forests and farm lands in this type tend to be developed for urbanized use such as residential land. The population and household growth ratio is over 20%, while the ratio of farm household has become less than 20%, therefore the agriculture in this type seems to be on the decline. Farm roads and the irrigation system are relatively well maintained in spite of such a large number of newcomers.