The visitor's recreational manners and evaluations to actions against overuse of forest region on Yakushima-Island, Japan

Recently, congestion and overuse are negatively influencing natural ecosystems and causing various problems to natural regions. The aim of this research is to understand people's recreational manners and to assess three proposed plans focused on raising costs to the visitor, visitor limitation and a guide accompaniment system to combat overuse between general visitors and the eco-tour participants. Two forest regions: Jomon-Sugi cedar trail and Shirataniunsui-Kyo on Yakushima-Island, which are famous for ecotourism, are chosen as study sites. As a result of this experiment, it was found that many visitors visited the Jomon-Sugi cedar trail for the purpose of mountain climbing and had good recreational manners. Moreover, concerning the evaluation of actions against overuse, the eco-tour participants highly agreed to all proposed plans in the Jomon-Sugi cedar trail, and they favored the idea of a guide accompaniment system in Shirataniunsui-Kyo. One can conclude the participant's consciousness towards nature conservation was raised after participating in the study along the Jomon-Sugi cedar trail and the eco-tour in Shirataniunsui-Kyo. The study also found that the guide accompaniment system is the most popular method among the three proposed plans to encourage visitors to take on responsibility to preserve the natural environment and also led to the acquisition of repeating visitors for the mid and long term.