A study on protection measures for terraced landscapes in Italy and Japan

Terraced landscapes represent one of the main features of many cultural landscapes; their position in between the agrarian landscape and built artefacts has not ensured them adequate protection since agriculture in many industrialized countries is declining. After looking at the evolution of cultural landscapes protection in Japan and Italy within its European context, the paper focuses on how the consideration of terraced landscapes has been changing in the past three decades. After the adoption of the cultural landscapes category by UNESCO in 1992 many actions for cultural landscape protection have been undertaken in Japan and Italy. The paper analyses legislation, measures, projects and bottom-up initiatives for cultural landscape protection involving terraced landscapes. Regarding Japan their protection is limited to a small number when referring to legislation. On the contrary, individual or local actions seem to be much more proactive and effective for terraced landscapes maintenance. On the other hand the Italian system for cultural landscape protection is extended to the entire national territory and can count on a strict control of transformations by the cultural properties sector. Unfortunately such a strict control system does not rely on active policies based on aids or incentives. Some little help comes from other sectors like the nature conservation one which is mostly promoted by the EU. As terraced landscapes are still disappearing extremely fast, they need adequate measures for their protection which should be based not only on aids to the agrarian sector but also considering many added values ranging from hydrogeological stability to rainwater management, from wildlife conservation to cultural tourism.