Taking/Compensations or Regulations? Balancing Landscape Conservation and the Development of Renewable Energy Facilities in Japan

The application of regulations for the development of renewable energy facilities is one of the key environmental conservation strategies being implemented in Japan. However, regulations are only applied if the degree of environmental degradation falls below the “reference point.” Thus, impacts of project development that are remarkably limited to scenic values of landscapes are largely overseen in Japan. On the other hand, establishing standards for the “reference point” is challenging, and existing scientific approaches and legal frameworks for conserving “daily landscapes” are largely absent. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a set of standards for “reference points” or indicators to classify landscape inventories, particularly those with scenic values. This study explored the potential of development-compensated implementation in Japan by scrutinizing relevant compensation measures in other countries. The results revealed that adding the aesthetic degradation of landscapes as an object in development compensation is challenging, as its value is difficult to monetize. Further, the evaluation of landscape degradation may be insufficient. Hence, there is a need for objective-driven indicators and methods that measure landscape degradation, particularly the effect of renewable energy facilities on the scenic values of “daily landscapes.”