[O-04] Geoparks in Japan

[O04-P18] The Izu Peninsula Geopark awareness survey

Iida Masato¹, *Tetsuya Ota¹, Yoshikawa Kaoru¹, Yuna Matsumoto¹ (1.Izu Peninsula Geopark)

Keywords:geopark, Awareness survey, residents

The Izu Peninsula Geopark Promotion Council was established in March 2011, and the area was certified as a Japanese Geopark in 2012. This geopark is currently carrying out activities for becoming a UNESCO Global Geopark. The main story of the geopark centers on the collision between the Izu massif and Honshu due to the motion of the Philippine Sea Plate and volcanic landforms of different types that can be seen in the peninsula as a result. The geopark is spread over a large area of 2027 sq.km and is composed of 15 cities and towns. The area has an independent Geoguide association where local citizens are actively engaged in geopark promotion. However so far there was no large survey undertaken in the geopark to measure people’s understanding of the geopark (a survey of 350 respondents were carried out during the basic management plan formulation in 2013). The geopark has a total population of about 690,000 people. In order to understand how people think of the geopark, a questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample size of nearly 1100 respondents. There were 25 questions, and these questions were designed to probe attitudes from simple awareness of geoparks to expectations towards the geopark and opinions about specific components like guide panels. This presentation will present the results of that survey and the insight this result provides for future geopark activity in the area. As this is possibly the first large scale survey of people’s attitudes to be held in a Japanese geopark, the results will be helpful for other members of the Japanese Geoparks Network.