Secretariat of theConvention on
Biological Diversity

61

CBD Technical Series No. 61

BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY
IN COASTAL COMMUNITIESExploring the
Potential of Satoumi
for Implementing the
Ecosystem Approach in
the Japanese Archipelago

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Biological and Cultural Diversity
in Coastal Communities
Exploring the Potential of Satoumi for Implementing the
Ecosystem Approach in the Japanese ArchipelagoAcknowledgements
Published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. ISBN: 92-9225-383-2
Copyright © 2011, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expressionof any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The views reported in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Convention on Biological
Diversity nor those of the reviewers.
This publication may be reproduced for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission
from the copyright holders, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. The Secretariat of theConvention would appreciate receiving a copy of any publications that uses this document as a source.
Citation
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (2011).
Biological and Cultural Diversity in Coastal Communities, Exploring the Potential of Satoumi for
Implementing the Ecosystem Approach in the Japanese Archipelago. Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, Montreal, Technical Series no. 61.
For further information, please contact:
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
World Trade Centre
413 St. Jacques Street, Suite 800
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 1N9Phone: 1 (514) 288 2220
Fax: 1 (514) 288 6588
E-mail: secretariat@cbd.int
Website: http://www.cbd.int
Cover photos, top to bottom: © David Devlin; © Anne McDonald; © Anne McDonald; © Go Tabinuki
Back cover: © Go Tabinuki
Typesetting: Em Dash Design

This document was produced with the financial support of the Prefecture of Ishikawa and the City of Kanazawa,
Japan. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity wishes to acknowledge with appreciation the
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK)
for editing this document, and would like to thank the authors and photographers who contributed to thisreport and the organisations that collaborated in its preparations. In addition, UNU-IAS OUIK expresses its
gratitude for the editing and coordination of this effort to, in alphabetical order: Joannès Berque, Jacqueline
Grekin, Atsuko Hasegawa, Jihyun Lee, Anne McDonald, Osamu Matsuda, Yoshitaka Ota and Marjo Vierros.

Biological and Cultural Diversity in Coastal Communities

Contents
Foreword by the Executive Secretary of the CBD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Foreword by the Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Executive summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

I.

Introductory articles

1.	Relevance of satoumi to the CBD mandate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. 	Mainstreaming satoumi in Japanese national policy:
Introduction to the case studies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

II. Case studies
1. 	Shiretoko: Expanding fisheries co-management to ecosystem-based management. . . . 18
2.

Satoumi to integrate resource conservation and use: Sandfish fisheriesin Akita Prefecture.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.

Fisher activities to conserve the ecosystem of Toyama Bay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Box 1: Uotsukirin — The Fish-Breeding Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4. 	Multi-stakeholder dialogue initiatives in Nanao Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Box 2: Oyster shell nurseries – using aquaculture waste for biodiversity management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5. 	The ama-san of Hegura Island: Carrying on the traditions of herancestors—over 1,400 years of community-based resource management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Box 3: Agehama-style salt making traditions in Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

6.

Satoumi at work: An urban project in Tokyo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Box 4: Partnership for environmental education and ecosystem restoration: The case of
eelgrass bed reestablishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7. 	Towards satoumi in Ago Bay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8. 	Mobilizing local wisdom and scientific knowledge: Re-creating eelgrassbeds in Okayama.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
9. 	Tidal flat restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Box 5: Ecological links between terrestrial and coastal areas in the Yura river estuary and
the Tango Sea.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

10. 	Okinawa: Effective conservation practices from satoumi ina coral reef ecosystem.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

III. Overview articles
1.

Satoumi and institutional characteristics of Japanese coastal
fishery management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Box 6: Kisetsu-sadame.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
2. 	Synthesis: Emerging satoumi practices for biodiversity management in
human influenced coastal ecosystems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

iii

Biological and Cultural Diversity in Coastal Communities

Foreword from the Executive
Secretary of the CBD
Like many, I was deeply distressed and sorrowed by thetragedy that fell on the Northeastern Japanese coast thisyear. The global community was shocked by the demonstration of human fragility before wrathful seas, andhumbled by the dignity of the coastal communities thatcollectively withstood the unleashed violence of nature.
“Collective” is a word that comes to mind throughout
this edition of the CBD Technical Series on satoumi.
Our planet is endowed with beautiful coastal landscapes, hosting a great diversity of life and providing
abundant resources that are vital to many countries. Over a third of the world population lives within 100 kmof the shoreline, and this proportion is growing rapidly. Communities among the most vulnerable depend critically on these ecosystems, whose degradation would directly threaten many livelihoods. Coastal ecosystems
provide a multitude of indispensible services to industrialised economies as well; the economic evaluation ofsuch services is difficult but invariably yields daunting figures. Finally, coastal biodiversity harbours vast, yet
unexplored resources that should be preserved for future generations.
Regrettably, study after study confirms that this heritage is under threat due to the rapid decline in the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. Our shores are a strategic frontline in the global biodiversity crisis. But conserving
biodiversity in coastal areas is particularly challenging, one reason being the ever-increasing demand forcoastal space from a variety of users. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognise theimportance of effectively protecting our coasts. Of utmost importance as well is to better manage biodiversity in coastal seas where human influence is significant, because of their geographical extent, the biodiversity
they harbour, and their connectedness and influence on protected areas.
Developing and exchanging good practices will be essential to successfully address this challenge. Satoumi, as
an experience capitalising on traditional coastal cultures for management in a modern context, is a welcome
contribution to the growing knowledge base in this field. The case studies in this report show that valuable
improvements to the management of biodiversity in human-influenced coastal ecosystems are possible whilesatisfying the needs of various sectors. I hope that reporting on these practices will foster fruitful exchanges
between coastal communities facing similar challenges around the world.
I would like to thank the researchers that have contributed to this report, the United Nations University Instituteof Advanced Studies, the Government of Japan and the Prefecture of Ishikawa, whose support to this editionof the CBD Technical Series is an inspiring show of commitment to help address the biodiversity crisis, fromthe host country to the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties and President of the Conference of theParties to the Convention. As Japan bequeathed to the world the word “tsunami” to describe the destructive
might of seas, so perhaps the word “satoumi” may remain to describe the peaceful harmony that can also exist
between communities and their sea.

Ahmed Djoghlaf
Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversityv

CBD Technical Series No. 61

foreword from the governor
of ishikawa prefecture
I still vividly remember the day in April 2008 when the United Nations
University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK) was established in Ishikawa. Since thatday, UNU-IAS OUIK has strived to find solutions to the global issue ofsustainable development from a local perspective. Through these research
activities, UNU-IAS OUIK has collaborated with both domestic andinternational research organizations. As about sixty per cent of Ishikawa’s
land consists of satoyama environments, in addition to long coastlines,
research projects that focus on satoyama and satoumi, in particular, arequickly progressing.
Along with support for the UNU-IAS OUIK’s research projects, Ishikawa
Prefecture is also taking part in a variety of efforts to conserve and utilize
biodiversity that specifically focus on satoyama and satoumi. These efforts
are being positively communicated throughout the world on occasions
such as a side event at COP 9 in May 2008, the Asia-Pacific Forum forEnvironment and Development (APFED) in August 2009, a presentation during a visit to the Secretariat of
the Convention on Biological Diversity in September 2010 and a side event at COP 10 in October 2010. We
are extremely grateful to UNU-IAS OUIK for their support during these events.

Biological and Cultural Diversity in Coastal Communities

Executive Summary
The alarming rates of decline in coastal biodiversity are well documented, and the resulting decrease in vital
ecosystem services may have vast and adverse consequences for many countries. While protected areas are an
indispensible tool for conservation, in many areas relying solely on the exclusion of human use is problematic. In the particular case of Japan, reviving satoumi, a coastal sea with high human influence together withhigh productivity and biodiversity, is one culturally appropriate way to integrate conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Satoumi has enabled the effective involvement of stakeholders from different sectors in coastal conservation.
The nuanced view of human interaction with coastal nature in satoumi accommodates a wide range of conservation and restoration practices, including some involving human labour on the ecosystem, such as reforestationof watershed slopes, restoration of seagrass beds or maintenance of artificial habitats. Available data is encouraging on their effectiveness and their potential to mobilize communities and fishers.
Satoumi conservation has facilitated the mainstreaming of biodiversity concerns in various sectors involvedin the coastal zone. Several ministries use satoumi to enhance conservation in their policies and field activities, and fishers voluntarily led and invested labour and resources into conserving the local ecosystem. Thiseffective integration of conservation costs by ecosystem users appears to rest on collective, largely hereditary
ownership and empowered collective structures that can harmonise economical and technical consideration
with cultural and non-utilitarian views of life on the coast.

This edition of the CBD Technical Report, on satoumi, complied by UNU-IAS OUIK, is immensely significant from the perspective of biodiversity conservation in satoyama areas.

Uptake in wider management frameworks and processes, and multidisciplinary, international collaboration
are priorities to further the contribution of satoumi to biodiversity conservation. Satoumi is currently being
scaled up from a largely community-level practice to the national level. International collaboration and sharingof similar experiences is progressing, beginning with Asian countries with highly human-influenced coastal seas.

Much about satoumi, as well as marine biodiversity, is still unknown. In fact, the need to increase knowledge
on this topic is outlined in the National Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity 2010,
formulated by the Japanese Government. I believe this report makes an important contribution to enhancing this knowledge.

Overall, although further research and practice are necessary, where it has been applied, satoumi has provento be an effective, culturally appropriate concept for coastal conservation. The experiences reported herein
can thus be a useful contribution to the knowledge-base for biodiversity management in human-influenced
coastal seas.

I would also like to express my deep respect for Ms. Anne McDonald, Director of UNU-IAS OUIK, and for
all those who participated in creation of this report.
I sincerely hope that biodiversity conservation efforts continue to grow and I look forward to further development of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa.

Masanori Tanimoto
Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture

vi

vii

Oyster farming in Nanao Bay, an enclosed sea area with a long history of mariculture.

Below the surface of coastal waters surrounding Japan's capital megacity, sea
anemones, three spot damsel fish and other marine life inhabit Tokyo Bay.

Adding color to marine life, seahorses are foundin abundance in the sea around Notojima Island,
Nanao Bay, Ishikawa Prefecture.

Sub-tropical waters sustain a colorful mosaic
of marine life as exhibited here with the pink
anemone fish in Kerama, Okinawa.

Food culture of fishing communities often reflect
the local marine ecosystems and marine resources it
supports. A staple for northern fishing communities,
salmon is being dried in the sun in Rausu, Shiretoko
Penninsula, Hokkaido.

Muroran blenny thrive in the cool northern waters in
Rausu, Shiretoko Penninsula, Hokkaido

The ice flows reach the shores of Shiretoko Peninsula in
mid-winter carrying with them plankton and other sea
life. Fringed blenny below the sea ice flows in Utoro,
Shiretoko Penninsula, Hokkaido.

With autumn comes the changing of leaves of theforests of Hokkaido and the rivers are painted withthe colors of the dog salmon beating upstream.
Rausu, Shiretoko Penninsula, Hokkaido.

Found throughout the Japanese Archipelago, stretching 3,000 kilometers from
northern Hokkaido to southern Okinawa, here is the octopus and rich kelp of
the northern waters surrounding Shiretoko Penninsula, Hokkaido.

Traditional fishing communities in Ishikawa Prefecture
maintain the annual summer custom of drying fish to
be used as fish broth throughout the year.

A divers' mecca in the winter, divers gather from around
Japan to share the wonders of marine life beneath the iceflows in Utoro, Shiretoko Penninsula, Hokkaido.

Carrying on with the traditions of her ancestors, thefemale ama divers on Hegura Island are the guardians ofartisinal fishing methods and culture transmitted fromgeneration to generation for over 1,000 years.

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Biological and Cultural Diversity in Coastal Communities

I. Introductory Articles

xvi

1

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Introductory Article 1: Relevance of Satoumi to the CBD Mandate

introductory article

relevanCe oF satoumi to the Cbd mandate1

marjo vierros
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Traditional Knowledge Initiative.
Charles Darwin University Casuarina Campus, Ellengowan Drive, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia. E-mail: vierros@ias.unu.edu

Satoumi AnD thE ConvEntIon on
BIologICAl DIvErsIty (CBD)
Yanagi1 (2008) defines satoumi as “high productivity
and biodiversity in the coastal sea with human interaction”. Satoumi both as a concept and a management
strategy provides a culturally-appropriate method
for implementing provisions of the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) related to coastal areas.
On a very basic level, satoumi is an expression of
the CBD ecosystem approach, which is considered
the primary framework for action under the CBD.
Satoumi’s roots in traditional ecological knowledge
and cultural history also provide a way to implement
aspects of Article 8(j) on traditional knowledge, innovations and practices. Finally, satoumi is of particular
relevance to the CBD programme of work on marine
and coastal biological diversity (decision VII/5).
The programme of work on marine and coastal biological diversity was originally adopted in 1998 (decision
IV/5). One of the earliest programmes of work developed by the CBD Parties, it was a reflection of theimportance attached to the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity following
the 1995 Jakarta Mandate (a Ministerial Declarationreflecting a global consensus on the importance ofmarine and coastal biodiversity). The purpose of the
programme of work was to provide countries withspecific activities that could be undertaken to implement the Jakarta Mandate according to national
priorities. Amongst those were five priority areas:(1) Integrated marine and coastal area management(IMCAM); (2) Sustainable use of marine and coastal
living resources; (3) Marine and coastal protectedareas (MCPAs); (4) Mariculture; and (5) Invasive
alien species. The programme of work was reviewed
and updated in 2004 (decision VII/5), and 2010 (decision X/29) but the priority areas remained the same.
Of the five priority areas, satoumi-related activities
address three: IMCAM, sustainable use of living
resources, and mariculture. Various satoumi projects
have incorporated activities relevant to coastal
12“Satoumi, a new concept for sustainable fisheries”
in Fisheries for Global Welfare and Environment,
5th World Fisheries Congress, 2008, pp. 351-358.
Tsukamoto et al. eds, Terrapub, Tokyo. Regarding
this definition, it should be noted that the conceptof satoumi is still evolving and thus it is possible thatthe definition will also further evolve with broader
application of satoumi as a management approach.

management and integrated river basin management.
The intricate connection between the coast and thesea has been repeatedly highlighted in CBD decisions
related to marine and coastal biodiversity, and the
management of the coastal area from the mountaintop to the sea is basic to satoumi. Satoumi relies onparticipation of all relevant stakeholders, with a strongemphasis on community involvement. The ethic ofparticipation is also central to the CBD, particularly
its provisions related to IMCAM and the ecosystemapproach. Many of the specific satoumi activities, suchas restoration of seagrass beds, sustainable cultivationof oysters, and restoration of coastal fisheries are activities found in the CBD programme of work on marine
and coastal biodiversity.
Satoumi also brings something new to the CBD’s workon marine and coastal biodiversity. Since only 53 percent of the Japanese coastline is natural, many satoumi
projects have focused specifically on urban areas. Thisemphasis on restoration of urban water quality andbiodiversity through means based on modern scienceand traditional cultural heritage is new to the CBD. As
such, techniques employed as part of satoumi provide alearning opportunity for all urban nations with coastal
zones highly altered by human development.
As our understanding of the role of biodiversity inclimate change adaptation increases, so does the needto implement projects that enhance the resilience ofboth biodiversity and coastal human communities ina changing world. Satoumi-related projects provide
one way for building this type of resilience. This areaof research is still new to the CBD, but is likely to gain
more prominence following the 10th meeting of theConference of the Parties (COP 10).

thE ECosystEm APProACh AnD
SatoumiThe ecosystem approach was adopted as the primary
framework for action under the CBD at COP 2 in
Jakarta in 1995. The approach provides for a holistic management strategy that goes beyond the single
species management strategies of yesteryear to encompass management of entire ecosystems and theircomponent species (including humans), and theoften dynamic and complex interactions between
them and their physical and biological environment.
In 2000, COP 5 endorsed a description of the ecosystem approach as follows:3

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Introductory Article 1: Relevance of Satoumi to the CBD Mandate

The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the
integrated management of land, water andliving resources that promotes conservationand sustainable use in an equitable way.
Application of the ecosystem approach will
help to reach a balance of the three objectivesof the Convention. It is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies
focused on levels of biological organization
which encompass the essential processes, functions and interactions among organisms andtheir environment. It recognizes that humans,with their cultural diversity, are an integral
component of ecosystems.2

The description was underpinned by 12 principles
and 5 points of operational guidance. The principles
were considered complementary and interlinked, andshould be applied together, rather than one at a time.
When combined, the definition, principles and operational guidance provide a flexible framework that ismeant to be applied in locally meaningful ways.
The commonalities between satoumi and the ecosystem approach can be seen when each of the 12
principles of the ecosystem approach is consideredin the context of satoumi-related activities. The results,
as can be seen from the table below, show that satoumi
provides a culturally appropriate way to implement
the CBD ecosystem approach in Japan.

Table 1. Commonalities between the 12 principles of the ecosystem approach and satoumi.
Principle (from decision V/6)

Explanation (from decision V/6)

Satoumi relevance

1. The objectivesof management ofland, water and living
resources are a matter ofsocietal choices.

Different sectors of society view ecosystems
in terms of their own economic, cultural andsocietal needs. Indigenous peoples and otherlocal communities living on the land areimportant stakeholders and their rights andinterests should be recognized. Both culturaland biological diversity are central componentsof the ecosystem approach, and management
should take this into account. Societal choices
should be expressed as clearly as possible.
Ecosystems should be managed for their intrinsic
values and for the tangible or intangible benefits
for humans, in a fair and equitable way.

Different government
departments and the generalpublic view and apply satoumi
in accordance with their own
priorities. The concept is
broad enough to encompass
priorities of diverse sectors, aswell as scientific, cultural andspiritual values.

Decentralized systems may lead to greater
efficiency, effectiveness and equity. Management
should involve all stakeholders and balance
local interests with the wider public interest.
The closer management is to the ecosystem,
the greater the responsibility, ownership,
accountability, participation, and use of local
knowledge.

Satoumi-related activities
are generally implemented
on the community level,with government support.
Conservation activities
undertaken as part of satoumi
have proven valuable inmobilising communities tocare for and better understandtheir local coastal ecosystem.

Management interventions in ecosystems often
have unknown or unpredictable effects on otherecosystems; therefore, possible impacts needcareful consideration and analysis. This may
require new arrangements or ways of organization
for institutions involved in decision-making to
make appropriate compromises, if necessary.

In satoumi, there is anemphasis on understanding
and regulating how activities
taking place on land affect thesea downstream. Examples
include regulation of nutrient
cycling and pollution.

2. Management should
be decentralized to thelowest appropriate level.

3. Ecosystem managers
should consider theeffects (actual or
potential) of theiractivities on adjacentand other ecosystems.

2

4

Principle (from decision V/6)

Explanation (from decision V/6)

Satoumi relevance

4. Recognizing potential
gains from management,
there is usually a need tounderstand and manage
the ecosystem in an economic context. Any such
ecosystem-management
programme should:(a) Reduce thosemarket distortions
that adversely affectbiological diversity;(b) Align incentives topromote biodiversity
conservation and sustainable use;(c) Internalize costs andbenefits in the given
ecosystem to the extent
feasible.

The greatest threat to biological diversity lies
in its replacement by alternative systems ofland use. This often arises through market
distortions, which undervalue natural systems
and populations and provide perverse incentives
and subsidies to favor the conversion of land toless-diverse systems.
Often those who benefit from conservation do
not pay the costs associated with conservation
and, similarly, those who generate environmental
costs (e.g. pollution) escape responsibility.
Alignment of incentives allows those who control
the resource to benefit and ensures that those
who generate environmental costs will pay.

Satoumi is grounded in anunderstanding of the local
socio-cultural context andfocuses on restoring ecologicalservices and enhancing
livelihoods, particularly inregards to fisheries. Active
conservation measures, where
fishers contribute time andresources to planting trees,
kelp, Sargassum beds, etc. areexamples of satoumi-related
activities, which provide a
potentially interesting way forusers of biodiversity resources
to internalize the costs ofconservation.

5. Conservation of
ecosystem structure andfunctioning, in orderto maintain ecosystemservices, should be apriority target of theecosystem approach.

Ecosystem functioning and resilience depends
on a dynamic relationship within species,
among species and between species and theirabiotic environment, as well as the physical andchemical interactions within the environment.
The conservation and, where appropriate,
restoration of these interactions and processes
is of greater significance for the long-term
maintenance of biological diversity than simply
protection of species.

Central to satoumi is themaintenance and/or
restoration of the material
cycle and creation of a
resilient coastal zone,
including through restorationor construction of habitats
essential for the structure andfunctioning of the coastal
ecosystem.

6. Ecosystems must
be managed within
the limits of theirfunctioning.

In considering the likelihood or ease of attaining
the management objectives, attention should
be given to the environmental conditions that
limit natural productivity, ecosystem structure,functioning and diversity. The limits to ecosystem
functioning may be affected to different degrees
by temporary, unpredictable of artificiallymaintained conditions and, accordingly,
management should be appropriately cautious.

One of the noteworthy aspectsof satoumi is its application
to urban coastlines, wherepreviously unproductive andpolluted areas are recovered
and restored throughcommunity activities suchas eelgrass planting andnon-intensive aquaculture ofoysters.

7. The ecosystemapproach should beundertaken at theappropriate spatial andtemporal scales.

The approach should be bounded by spatial
and temporal scales that are appropriate to theobjectives. Boundaries for management will
be defined operationally by users, managers,
scientists and indigenous and local peoples.
Connectivity between areas should be promoted
where necessary. The ecosystem approach isbased upon the hierarchical nature of biologicaldiversity characterized by the interaction andintegration of genes, species and ecosystems.

Satoumi projects have been
undertaken on scales ranging
from relatively large (Seto
Inland Sea) to small (a single
small bay around a village).
Connectivity with adjacentareas and the open sea are
generally taken into account.

Decision V/6 of the CBD Conference of the Parties.

5CBD Technical Series No. 61

Introductory Article 1: Relevance of Satoumi to the CBD Mandate

Principle (from decision V/6)

Explanation (from decision V/6)

Satoumi relevance

Principle (from decision V/6)

Explanation (from decision V/6)

Satoumi relevance

8. Recognizing thevarying temporal scales
and lag-effects thatcharacterize ecosystemprocesses, objectives forecosystem management
should be set for thelong term.

Ecosystem processes are characterized byvarying temporal scales and lag-effects. This
inherently conflicts with the tendency of humans
to favour short-term gains and immediate
benefits over future ones.

While satoumi as a concept
is a little over 10 years old,its continuation in the longterm is ensured throughincorporation into policy,
including Japan’s Third
National Biodiversity Strategy
and Basic Plan on Ocean
Policy.

12. The ecosystemapproach should involve
all relevant sectors ofsociety and scientificdisciplines.

Most problems of biological-diversity
management are complex, with many
interactions, side-effects and implications, andtherefore should involve the necessary expertiseof stakeholders at the local, national, regional
and international level, as appropriate.

Application of satoumi
involves a broad range ofparticipants, including local,
prefectural and national
governments, fishermen,
scientists, civil society andconcerned citizens.

9. Management must
recognize that change isinevitable.

Ecosystems change, including species
composition and population abundance.
Hence, management should adapt to thechanges. Apart from their inherent dynamics
of change, ecosystems are beset by a complexof uncertainties and potential “surprises” inthe human, biological and environmental
realms. Traditional disturbance regimes may
be important for ecosystem structure andfunctioning, and may need to be maintained or
restored. The ecosystem approach must utilize
adaptive management in order to anticipate andcater for such changes and events and should
be cautious in making any decision that may
foreclose options, but, at the same time, consider
mitigating actions to cope with long-termchanges such as climate change.

Satoumi projects include amonitoring component, which
provides a basis for adaptive
management.

10. The ecosystemapproach shouldseek the appropriatebalance between,
and integration of,conservation and use of
biological diversity.

Biological diversity is critical, both for its intrinsic
value and because of the key role it plays inproviding the ecosystem and other services uponwhich we all ultimately depend. There has beena tendency in the past to manage componentsof biological diversity either as protected or
non-protected. There is a need for a shift tomore flexible situations, where conservation
and use are seen in context and the full range ofmeasures is applied in a continuum from strictly
protected to human-made ecosystems.

Satoumi focuses on realistic
conservation and sustainable
use measures in coastal
seas with significant humanactivities. These include
conservation, creation andrestoration of seagrass beds,
tidal lands and coral reefs;
measures for reducing waterpollution in semi-enclosed
seas; and sustainable resource
management and livelihood
enhancement.

11. The ecosystemapproach should
consider all forms of
relevant information,
including scientific,
indigenous and local
knowledge, innovations
and practices.

Information from all sources is critical to arriving
at effective ecosystem management strategies. A
much better knowledge of ecosystem functions
and the impact of human use is desirable.
All relevant information from any concernedarea should be shared with all stakeholders
and actors, taking into account, inter alia, any
decision to be taken under Article 8(j) of theConvention on Biological Diversity. Assumptions
behind proposed management decisions should
be made explicit and checked against available
knowledge and views of stakeholders.

Satoumi is based both on
scientific research andtraditional cultural values.
Local knowledge is employedin monitoring activities andenvironmental restoration
technology. As well, satoumi
provides ways to capitaliseon traditional knowledge forconservation in a modern
world.

67

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Introductory Article 2: Mainstreaming Satoumi in Japanese National Policy: Introduction to the Case Studies

introductory article

mainstreaminG satoumi in JaPanese national
PoliCy: introduCtion to the Case studies

2

yoshitaka ota1, yuko Chiba2 and John Dolan1“A key lesson from the failure to meet the 2010 biodiversity target is thatthe urgency of a change of direction must be conveyed to decision-makers
beyond the constituency so far involved in the biodiversity convention”(Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, 2010, p. 83).

1 Policy Research Department, Ocean Policy Research Foundation, Kaiyo Senpaku Building, 1-15-16 Toranomon, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 105-0001 Japan. E-mail: y-ota@sof.or.jp
2 United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa, 2-1-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa,
Ishikawa, 920-0962 Japan. E-mail: yuko.chiba@hotmail.com

IntroDuCtIon
The Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, published by the
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
in preparation for the tenth meeting of the Conferenceof the Parties (COP 10) in Nagoya, October 2010,
makes clear the dire state of global biodiversity andour failure to meet the 2010 target for reducing the rateof biodiversity loss globally. The report highlights theurgent need to change the direction of global policy
and make environmental conservation a top priority.
It underlines the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity protection and integrating CBD strategies into
relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes
and policies. The report sees this as the key to initiating and sustaining the level of effort needed to meetthe challenge of global action that can halt the lossof biodiversity and bring about real changes in ourenvironment.

Mainstreaming the idea of conserving biodiversity inthe work of production sectors is considered one of
the most challenging tasks for CBD implementation.
One reason that mainstreaming is so difficult for CBD,
it is argued, is because biodiversity loss affects different sectors in different ways and to varying degrees,and so policy interests among different sectors often
clash. Another barrier to cross-sectoral integrative
policies is that CBD-related issues have traditionallybeen seen as primarily environmental policy concerns.
This tendency often ignores the way sectors, development models, policies and programmes operate inreality, thus underscoring the cross-sectoral nature ofenvironmental challenges. A wider appreciation that
integrative approaches can have both immediate andlong-term benefits in improved environmental quality
and productivity could help create a long-term safeguard for sustainable development.
Transcending inter-ministerial sectoral tendencies isa challenge Japan shares with its global counterparts.
As has been the case in other countries, it has beendifficult to mainstream the implementation of CBD

8priorities into Japanese policy because of conflicting
interests among government bodies. Typically, conservation of marine biodiversity has been overwhelmedby other national concerns, including developmentof fisheries and coastal infrastructure. Thus, issues
related to biodiversity were traditionally regarded aspart of a separate, independent agenda of the environmental sector.

Yet, because of global and local efforts to educate
people about biodiversity, and as a result of efforts toimplement the ecosystem approach in the context ofcoastal activities (see previous chapter), such trends
have been gradually changing. In part because ofJapan’s role as host country of the tenth meetingof the Conference of the Parties to Convention on
Biological Diversity in October 2010, public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and of the CBD
has been raised. Additionally, the ecosystem approach,which stresses cross-sectoral interests in government
discussions and policy-making, has been promoted bypolicymakers. At the community level, conservationand sustainable use of biodiversity has been supported
by vigorous conservation activities organized by local
governments, NGOs, and commercial organizations.
This edition of the CBD Technical Series presents
10 case studies of satoumi activites, which serve as
examples of successful initiatives promoting marine
and coastal biodiversity concerns in Japanese policy,
including, importantly, mainstreaming it into crosssectoral government measures. To set the stage forthose case studies, the present chapter puts forward
three core discussion points regarding the roleof satoumi as a mainstreaming strategy for CBD
implementation.
For the purpose of this chapter, satoumi is consideredboth a concept and a type of sea-landscape that coastal
communities in Japan hope to recreate and conserve as
an integral part of community-based efforts to achieve
locally designed and implemented sustainable ecosystem-based management.

9CBD Technical Series No. 61

The following three discussion points concern biodiversity mainstreaming strategies that can be identified
as we review ongoing satoumi activities in nationaland sectoral policy implementation:
1. Incorporating the ecosystem approach into
sectoral strategies, plans, and programmes that
promote active and effective participation by
government, including national and local governments, as well as local communities and industry.
2. Upgrading community-level initiatives to implement the ecosystem approach, and coordinate
and integrate them with national-level strategies, plans, and programmes to both empower
communities and promote the notion of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources
without diminishing local sense of ownership.
3. Creating a national policy that can transcend
sectoralism and bridge differences among sectoral
policies and interests, as well as integrate sectoral
approaches.
As we examine these points, we will look at different
ideas of satoumi held by the three Japanese ministries
in charge of coastal environments: the Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT);
the Fisheries Agency (FA); and the Ministry of theEnvironment (MOE). We will then present national
policies related to the idea of satoumi, namely, Japan’s
Basic Plan on Ocean Policy and its Third National
Biodiversity Strategy. We will use these policies in
discussing how and why the notion of satoumi is brought
into national policy: firstly, because of its inclusiveness,and secondly, because of the way it reflects the Japanesesense of place—traditional coastal landscapes and local
environmental wisdom combined with natural science.

Satoumi approaches in government
programmes
Chapter 1 presented satoumi as an expression of the
CBD ecosystem approach that combines Japanesecultural notions of coastal life and traditional resource
management methods with advanced scientific ideas
about restoration and conservation of a healthy marine
environment, including nutrient circulation. The three
government ministries identified above have initiated different satoumi programmes to improve thecoastal environment. Each programme was dedicatedto preservation of the unique characteristics of several
different coastal environments in Japan.

10Introductory Article 2: Mainstreaming Satoumi in Japanese National Policy: Introduction to the Case Studiesi) Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism (MLIT)

The earliest ministerial initiative involving the notionof satoumi was introduced by MLIT in 2003. This
programme, called the Bay Renaissance Project, wasimplemented in four different locations, all in highly
industrialized coastal landscapes facing major enclosed
sea areas, including Tokyo and Osaka bays. The selection of these urban locations stemmed from a larger
ministerial project to manage Japanese urban planning strategy that included shoreline protection and ahighly efficient sewage system connecting urban residential areas and the coastal environment.
Carried out only in urban areas built up along stretchesof enclosed coastline, the programme first focused on
thorough scientific research on the coastal environment to identify and assess locations where marine
habitats capable of nurturing high biodiversity, suchas mud flats, could be successfully reintroduced. In
these cases, however, the scale of the newly reintroduced habitats is small and the recovery of marine
biodiversity in such limited areas is not sufficient tohave a substantial ecological impact on the wholeenclosed sea area. For example, one-third of Tokyo
Bay has been artificially altered by large-scale landfill,which destroyed most of the original habitat, including shoreline mud flats, and the total area of mudflat
that the programme has been able to restore is limited.
Nevertheless, the newly reintroduced satoumi area,
artificially created mudflats and a seagrass bed, isadequate for use in community education and for
promoting public involvement by the public in restoring marine biodiversity. The initial scientific efforts
and constant monitoring by those participating in
the public outreach project ensure the sustainabilityof the re-created areas, which can be used as examples of habitats with a high level of marine biodiversity.
Furthermore, participants in the public outreachproject have gathered abundant historical documents,
including maps and old photographs of the coastal area
before urban development changed it. Together withthe detailed scientific information that is now available, these materials remind people of the state of thecoastal environment before the radical transformation of the landscape. Thus, although the programme
was only designed in response to a sectoral interest in
demonstrating the potential development of ecologically high value areas in densely developed urban
bay locations, and although it is still experimental
and applied at a small-scale, MLIT has succeeded indemonstrating the synthesis of the three elements
in satoumi: (i) scientific knowledge, (ii) community
participation and governmental initiative, and (iii) the
importance of high marine biodiversity.

ii) Fisheries Agency (FA)Another ministerial programme associated with thenotion of satoumi was implemented by the Fisheries
Agency as a part of its initiative to promote the “multifunctionality of Japanese coastal fisheries”. In contrast
to MLIT’s programme, it is more focused on the activities of Japanese coastal fishing communities and theirrole in the conservation of marine ecosystems andcoastal environments. FA’s concept of multifunctionality refers to the benefits of community-based
activities in restoring marine ecosystems and sustainable resource use. The programme, called “Promoting
the multifunctionality of fishing communities and fisheries”, facilitated community-based activities to restore
nursery habitats, such as seagrass beds (see case study
8 on Okayama), and to establish voluntary management of locally important species (see case study 2 on
Akita and case study 10 on Okinawa). These activities
are carried out by local fishing communities, mainly
based on their environmental knowledge and traditional management systems.
The FA programme makes use of the strong senseof environmental ownership among people in fishing communities and the cultural heritage of thecoastal marine environment that have been passed
down through generations of fishers. In each case, thelocal fishing cooperative organized the programme
activities, working closely with the FA, whose policy
direction has moved from emphasis on catching morefish towards protection of fisheries. The programme
incorporated this way of thinking when it was introduced, thus giving recognition to the historical rolethat local fisheries have played in the sustainable useof coastal fish stock. Almost 200 local projects are
conducted all over Japan, and each was supported
by modest funding from FA. The progress of eachproject was monitored by local scientists or trained
government scientific officers with expertise not onlyin fisheries but also in ecological issues, such as the redtide phenomenon and marine waste. The programme
has succeeded in encouraging fishers to re-engage theknowledge built up in their communities, and – albeit
in a limited way – it has also encouraged community
initiatives in marine conservation. Many of the initiatives are too small in geographical scale to fully restore
the local ecosystem.

iii) Ministry of Environment (MOE)

In June 2007, with the announcement of a new policy
for Japan labelled “Becoming a Leading Environmental
Nation Strategy in the 21st Century: Japan’s Strategy fora Sustainable Society”, the MOE introduced a holistic
approach to restoring the ecosystems of both land andsea. The strategy consists of eight measures aimed atenabling Japan to become a leading nation in the effort
to restore a healthy global environment. It suggeststhat Japan can become a model for the achievementof sustainable societies by building upon its assets: a
traditional culture founded on respect for the naturalenvironment, cutting-edge technologies, and experienceand knowledge gained from successfully overcoming
serious pollution issues. Satoumi is incorporated inmeasure 6: creation of vibrant local communities thatutilize the blessings of nature. In an effort to implement
this measure, the MOE launched a three-year project tosupport the creation of satoumi in April 2008.
The ministry solicited applications from local governments conducting projects with communities under
the themes “Conserving marine coastal environmental systems” and “Humans living in harmony withthe oceans”. Providing small grants, the programme
supports local activities that follow the satoumi
concept. At the same time, the programme is conducting a national survey on satoumi activities by collecting
case studies, which will be compiled into nationalguidelines for the satoumi approach to ecosystembased management.
For the survey, MOE has prepared a chart for satoumi
activities in order to demonstrate their diverse operations and background (figure 1). The chart documents
the geographic location of each activity, its content,
the body leading the activities and their purposes,
and provides the cultural context for the activities.
Currently, satoumi activities are typically categorized
by geographic location into one of three major types:
fishing village, urban area or river basin (from ridge
to reef). The major types of activities involve cleaning waterfront areas, creating artificial mud flats or
seagrass beds to compensate for the loss of habitat due to development, and those that potentiallycontribute to climate change adaptation. The culturalcontext categories are satoumi activities based on religious beliefs and activities aimed at promoting public
engagement, particularly through tourism for residents
of urban areas and people who live in non-coastal
areas. (See case study 1 on Shiretoko and case study
4 on Nanao Bay.)

11CBD Technical Series No. 61

Among those categories, the “fishing village” typerefers to satoumi activities conducted by fishingcommunities. Many of these activities are supported
and monitored under the FA satoumi programme
noted earlier. “Urban” refers to activities conductedin urban coastal areas, for the most part organized,
supported and monitored by MLIT in the programme
outlined above. Finally, “river basin” satoumi activities (from the ridge to the reef) are operated throughthe mountaintop to reef, and from the river basins totheir estuaries, where different water ecosystems arelinked and communities are connected by water (seecase study 9 on the Yamaguchi Estuary and also Box
5 on a case study from Kyoto). They are also undertaken in terrestrial environments that support water
accumulation and circulation. Activities of this type
are particularly relevant to MOE sectoral interests,
which aim to remedy water pollution in rivers all theway to the coast, removing contaminants introducedin the course of Japan’s post-World War II industrial
development of coastal areas.

Introductory Article 2: Mainstreaming Satoumi in Japanese National Policy: Introduction to the Case Studies

ronment and ecosystems by emphasising the necessity
for strict scientific standards as well as high management standards. On the one hand, the criteria forscientific assessment and analysis must be adequate
to ensure the protection of marine ecosystems andpromote sound atmospheric interaction and material
circulation between the land, sea and sky as part the
Earth’s environmental system (for instance, the circulation of nutrients between rivers and the sea). On theother hand, management of activities must successfully build on community initiatives and maximize
the participation of multi-sectoral stakeholders. The
scientific and management criteria, however, should
not be considered as locked into a single monolithic
approach. Some of the most valuable parts of thesurvey are the variations in activities, which call for
flexibility in judgment and response. For that reason,a premise of the national guideline for satoumi is theimportance of adaptability and variation as observed in
the different satoumi activities. MOE gives high priority to quantitative scientific data on environmental
recovery and restoration acquired from the monitoring of each project as it progresses, so as to determine
whether or not the project fulfills the required criteria.
That said, the key to sustaining the operational structure of each project is adaptability in management.

Satoumi in national policy

Figure 1. MOE’s seven categories of satoumi-creation
activities3

The MOE survey of the various satoumi activities
in Japan takes full account of different conservation
efforts to protect Japanese coastal and marine ecosystems, including projects supported by the MLIT and
FA. Using the survey, the MOE aims to formulate
strong guidelines for the satoumi approach to envi3

12

http://www.env.go.jp/water/heisa/satoumi/en/06_5_e.
html#figure01.

In November 2007, the Third National Biodiversity
Strategy of Japan was approved by the Cabinet. The
idea behind it is to make Japan into a nation that canmaintain a balance between human society and natureand that nurtures biodiversity through conservationand sustainable use. The strategy defines Satoumi
as coastal sea areas where people have traditionallydepended for their livelihood on the bounty of nature.
The Strategy document goes on to describe satoumi
as an approach that involves human intervention tosustain high productivity and biodiversity while maintaining harmony with the natural environment.
The Cabinet also approved a Basic Plan on Ocean
Policy in March 2008. Its purpose was to put the Basic
Act on Ocean Policy enacted in July 2007 into action
by setting forth practical plans for the following five
years. Satoumi is mentioned in section 2, described as“measures that should be implemented by the government in a comprehensive and well-planned manner”.
This reference appears in text discussing the promotion of development and use of marine resources. Heresatoumi is presented as a conceptual framework for thecreation of rich and beautiful marine areas by conserving biodiversity and maintaining productivity throughhuman intervention while preserving harmony with
the natural environment.
While the three policy statements noted above all use
the term satoumi, the thrust of the concept is interpreted in slightly different ways. The Third National
Biodiversity Strategy of Japan depicts satoumi as
marine areas to be conserved or protected, while
Japan’s Strategy for a Sustainable Society and its Basic
Plan on Ocean Policy stress the need to create satoumi,
implying either restoring or constructing rather
than protecting. Furthermore, the Third National
Biodiversity Strategy of Japan and the Strategy for a
Sustainable Society see satoumi in terms of physicallydefined areas, while the Basic Plan on Ocean Policy
takes satoumi to be a conceptual framework. Thus, inthe formation of national policy, there has been roomfor discrepancies and therefore inclusiveness in theway satoumi is defined.

Academic discussions and publicawareness on satoumi
Judging by its use in the media, satoumi has also
made its way into the discourse of various spheresin Japanese society. It crops up increasingly as a key
term in discussions of sustainable development or iscited as a unique innovative concept representing theJapanese notion of human co-existence with the sea.
The coverage of satoumi by national newspapers has
tripled in the past 10 years. Conferences and seminars
on satoumi have been organized throughout Japan,
and numerous grassroots activities are designed andimplemented in reference to the term.
In short, satoumi has proven to be adaptable—it
lends itself to thinking about and planning coastalmanagement, ecosystem conservation and sustainable
development. This very flexibility has, in fact, appealed
to many academics who find it to be both inclusive—it encourages broad, comprehensive approaches—andalso practical, as it supports specific actions taken toconserve ecosystems. In other words, it conveys morethan simply a theory of conservation. Yanagi (1998),
for example, defines it as a spatial entity, “a coastal
area that has achieved high productivity and biologicaldiversity due to human intervention”. Matsuda (2007),on the other hand, links satoumi with the importantelement of Japan’s marine cultural heritage, which,by implication, includes the multifunctional roles offisheries, particularly the knowledge and practices of
traditional and community-based marine management. Nakajima (2009), who interviewed community
members engaged in satoumi projects, approaches
the concept from the perspective of ocean governance. He considers satoumi to express a concerted
effort to manage the oceans by involving civil society and governments, thus creating a new type ofcommons and thereby re-establishing the rich relationship between the oceans and the people.
National and regional governments, grassroots organizations, and the media have understood the satoumi
approach in various ways, and different elements ofthe ecosystem approach are emphasised, dependingon the nature and mission of the sector or community and its expertise and interests. Looked at in apositive light, this variability in defining satoumi gives
the concept a broad inclusiveness and has also generated debate and discussion over what, exactly, Japan’s
coastal environment encompasses, how all communities in the area fit in and who decides the answers
to these questions.

Conclusion
This chapter has discussed the process by which thesatoumi approach has been adopted into different
sectoral and national policy initiatives. Based on this
discussion, we can focus on three points in mainstreaming CBD, namely, (1) the incorporation of an
ecosystem approach into sectoral strategies, plans andprograms; (2) scaling up community-level ecosystemmanagement to the level of national strategy, planningand programmes; and (3) the integration of various
sectoral approaches into a national policy.
Regarding the first point, we have seen how different
government ministries have incorporated elements ofsatoumi into their projects, such as recreating biodiversity-rich habitats (although on a small scale), or
reconfiguring local environmental knowledge andtraditional management systems, or establishing
networks of communities connected by water in areas
stretching from rivers and river basins to the coast.
Having been incorporated into the general directionof each ministerial policy, the satoumi approach has
been a successful tool in promoting active and effective
participation in government, community, and indus-

13

CBD Technical Series No. 61

try, each of which has had a specific and pragmaticinterest in mainstreaming environmental protection
policy of coastal marine ecosystems, but has not been
integrated under a shared concern for ecosystem-based
management and biodiversity protection.

local environmental knowledge, and second, the flexibility of the concept and the possibility of gearing itto the policy and programmes of different ministries
by emphasizing certain aspects while not compromising its inclusiveness.

As to the second point, this chapter has described theway each ministerial programme values local initiatives and public participation, while at the sametime emphasising scientific objectivity. The MLIT
programme provides the scientific data that constitutes the foundation for project activities and theorganization of community participation, including monitoring and gathering historical materials toremind the public of what the coastal ecosystem—
which sustained diverse types of fisheries—was likebefore it was spoiled by industrial development. In
contrast, activities conducted under FA programmes
are based on the fishers’ environmental knowledge, but
rigorous scientific research is also carried out, ensuring that project activities have a solid scientific basebeyond the experiential knowledge of fishers and isaccounted for vis-à-vis other stakeholders. The inclusiveness of this approach is reflected in the way the
MOE values how the diversity of satoumi activities
were adapted to suit different locations and sociocultural backgrounds.

In the pages that follow, 10 case studies of satoumi
activities are presented to show how the approach ofeach one embodies a synthesis of science, community
involvement and policy. Further, the very success of
this culturally specific ecosystem approach, as demonstrated in the case studies, attests to how the Japanesepeople are accepting the challenge to protect thecultural and ecological diversity of their marine andcoastal environments.

Finally, concerning point three, and the integrationof various sectoral approaches into a national policy,
we emphasised in this chapter the flexibility of thesatoumi approach and the practice of focusing on
nature. National policy has incorporated different definitions and interpretations of satoumi, but that has notcreated confusion or obstacles in carrying out satoumi
projects. Rather, the flexibility of the term gives it avaluable inclusiveness. Clearly, the academics who
initially configured the satoumi approach lent it legitimacy as they supported the flexibility of definitions,the focus on hands-on practice of satoumi activities,
and the inclusiveness of different policy approaches
and interpretations. In this regard, satoumi is similar
to the CBD ecosystem approach, which lacks a definition (though it has a “description”), and is, in practice,applied in ways that are appropriate to different environmental and cultural circumstances.

Yanagi, T. 1998. “Establishment of Sato-Umi in the coastal

In conclusion, the progressive mainstreaming of thesatoumi approach into national policy has succeeded
due to two elements found in all satoumi projects: first,
the cooperation between local fishers and scientists
that enables a synthesis of scientific knowledge and14

References
Matsuda, O. 2007. “Overview of Ago Bay Restoration
Project based on the New Concept of ‘Satoumi’:
A Case of Environmental Restoration of Enclosed

Coastal Seas in Japan.” In Proceedings of 1st International
Workshop on Management and Function Restoration
Technology for Estuaries and Coastal Seas, edited by K. T.
Jung, 1-6. KORDI.

Nakajima, M. 2009. “A new way to share the sea – toward
the construction of Satoumi [Atarashii umino kyoyu].”Graphication 160:20-22.
sea.” Journal of Japan Society of Water Environment 21:
703 (in Japanese).

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 2: II. Case Studies

II. Case Studies

16

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 1: Shiretoko: Expanding Fisheries Co-Management to Ecosystem-Based Management

Case study

shiretoko: exPandinG Fisheries Co-manaGement
to eCosystem-based manaGement

1

mitsutaku makino1, hiroyuki matsuda2 and yasunori sakurai3
Fisheries Research Agency. E-mail: mmakino@affrc.go.jp
Yokohama National University. E-mail: matsuda@ynu.ac.jp
3 Hokkaido University. E-mail: sakurai@fish.hokudai.ac.jp
This chapter is based on two previously published articles (Makino et al. 2009; Matsuda et al. 2009).
1
2

ABstrACt
Designated as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site in 2005, the waters of Shiretoko, seasonallycovered with ice floes, are the northernmost ecosystem presented in this report. Communities there havefished a wide variety of species since ancient times. Satoumi-oriented conservation implied recognitionof these fishers’ communities as an integral component of an ecosystem they used sustainably for centuries. This recognition, along with conservation objectives that integrated sustainable use of biodiversity
components, and a cross-sectoral management framework, helped overcome the fisheries sector’s initial
apprehension towards the requirements of a natural world heritage. Shiretoko fishers became indispensible, self-driven actors in conservation. Shiretoko is an example of satoumi that successfully involved
local communities and combined their knowledge with science to conserve a priceless world heritage,
inclusive of its communities and their livelihood.

IntroDuCtIon
The Shiretoko peninsula is located at the far northeast
corner of Hokkaido and is one of the world’s richest
north temperate ecosystems. The area of Shiretoko,
including the peninsula and its adjacent sea, is oneof three Natural World Heritage sites in Japan. A
coastal community with a long history and far-reaching involvement with its natural surroundings, thearea demonstrates a uniquely balanced interaction
between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The area
is unusually rich in biological diversity, which includes
several endangered species, and it has a deep-rooted
cultural heritage built up over many generations offishing families.
The singularity of the ecological characteristics of theShiretoko peninsula and its adjacent marine areas is
explained partly by the fact that it lies at the southernmost limit of the seasonal ice floes in the northernhemisphere, and partly by its exposure to both the East
Sakhalin cold current and the Soya warm current.
These two currents, each bringing a different set ofoceanographic conditions, have helped to create thegreat diversity that characterizes the Shiretoko environment. Furthermore, borne on cold water from the
Sea of Okhotsk, a stream-like marine ecosystem—
where a welter of organisms live and migrate—also
passes through (Ministry of Environment, Hokkaido
Prefectural Government 2007). The area’s exceptional ecology is matched by its cultural significance,in that it provided the historical landscape for Ainu
communities. These indigenous people of Hokkaido
traditionally practised sustainable use of regional
resources in compliance with an animistic systemof beliefs that affirmed a close spiritual link between
nature and humans. “Shiretoko” means the end of theworld in Ainu language.

18

The Shiretoko peninsula was nominated for UNESCOWorld Heritage listing in 2004, and subsequentconservation measures have been implemented incollaboration with local fishing communities tomanage the ecosystem. With fishers’ activities as thecentral component, a co-management system wasformed that expanded its objectives and capacity
into an ecosystem approach to management in the
Shiretoko area, combining scientifically-groundedmodes of sustainable use of local marine resources
with conservation of the ecosystem in a Heritage site.
This paper presents the “Shiretoko approach” as an
example of satoumi that successfully involved local
communities and combined their knowledge with
science to conserve a priceless world heritage, inclusive of its communities and their livelihood.

ECology AnD FIshErIEs oF shIrEtoko
In early spring, when the sea ice melts, the bloomof ice algae and other phytoplankton attract diverse
marine life in the higher trophic strata, including awide variety of fish. The area’s high primary productivity (phytoplankton productivity) supports a wide
variety of species—fish, as well as marine mammals
and seabirds (Sakurai 2007). The area lies on a migration route for salmonids, walleye pollocks and a richdiversity of commercially-important fish species,
such as arabesque greenlings, rockfish, cods, flatfish
and cephalopods. Also, a large number of anadromous salmonids return from the sea to spawn in thestreams where they were born, providing food for large
terrestrial mammals like brown bears and Blakiston’s
fish-owls, and in that way connecting biogeochemical fluxes between terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
The food web in the Shiretoko Natural World Heritage(NWH) area is depicted in Figure 1.

19

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 1: Shiretoko: Expanding Fisheries Co-Management to Ecosystem-Based Management

	
  
Sea	
  eagles	  Fisheries	
  Steller	  sea	
  lion	
  

	
  

S	
  

Shiretoko	  World	  Natural	  Heritage	  Site	  Regional	  Liaison	  Commi8ee	  	
  Brown	
  bear	  Snails	   Seabirds	
  Role:	
  exchange	
  informa/on,	
  and	
  coordinate	
  interests/
policies	
  amongst	
  administra/ve	
  sectors.	
  Toothed	
  whales	  Sharks	  Par/cipants:	
  Central/local	
  government,	
  Fisheries	
  Coopera/ve	
  Associa/ons,	
  Sightseeing	
  Guide	  Associa/ons,	
  and	
  NGOs.	
  Snails	
  
Rays	
  

Trophic	
  level	
  

	
  

O	
  
OP	
  

G	
  

BT	
  

Yellowtail	
  

Cods	
  

Salmonids	
  Walleye	
  pollock	
  

F	
  

R	
  

Squid	  SC	
  Starﬁsh	  Crabs	
  Prawn	  Echinoids	
  

Sea	
  
cucumber	  Bivalves	
  

PS	
  

PH	
  
SL	
  

	
  

Mackerel	
  

SF	
  

A.G.	
  

	
  

Tuna	
  

Snails	  Sardine	  Other	
  ﬁshes	
  Sea	
  squirt	  Polychaetes	
  Baleen	  	
  whales	  Anchovy	

Zooplankton	
  (copepods,	  euphausiids)	
  Shiretoko	  World	  Natural	  Heritage	  Site	  Scien:ﬁc	  Council	  coordina/on	
  
and	
  
coopera/on	  	
  Role:	
  Provide	  Scien/ﬁc	
  Advices	
  on	
  management,	
  research,	
  and	  monitoring	
  ac/vi/es	  Par/cipants	
  :	
  Scien/sts,	
  Central/local	  government,	
  Fisheries	  Coopera/ve	
  Associa/ons,	
  and	
  NGOs.	
  Marine	  WG	
  River	
  Construc/on	
  	
  
WG	
  

Shiretoko	
  Na:onal	
  Park	  Commi8ee	
  for	  the	
  Review	  of	
  Proper	  Use	  	
  Role:	  Build	
  use	
  rules	  	
  for	
  tourists	  to	
  reduce	  nega/ve	
  impacts	
  on	
  environment	  Par/cipants:	
  Scien/sts,	
  Central/
local	
  government,	
  NGOs.	
  Yezo	
  Deer	  WG	
  FIgurE 3. Cross-sectoral coordinating system in the
Shiretoko WNH.

	
  Seaweed	  and	  seagrass	
  Detritus	  Phytoplankton	
  (ice	
  algae)	
  FIgurE 1. Food web in the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage (WNH) area (as depicted by the Shiretoko WNH
Site Scientific Council). AG: arabesque greenling; BT: bighand thornyhead; F: flatfishes; G: greenlings; O: octopus;
OP: ocean perch; PH: Pacific herring; PS: Pacific saury; R: rockfish; S: seals; SC: saffron cod; SF: sandfish; SL: sand-lance.

Archaeological surveys show that people have been
living in this area for more than two thousand years;
clay pots and the bones of Steller sea lions, seals, andfish have been excavated. Today, the fisheries sector isstill the most important industry in the regional economy, supporting one of the most productive fisheries
in Japan. Their main target species and fishing gear
include salmonids caught by set net, common squidby jigging, and walleye pollock, cod, and arabesquegreenling by gillnet. In 2006, there were 851 fishers
engaged in the industry. The average production per
fisher is 3.4 times the national average by volume
and 4.0 times by value. Catch statistics are shown in
Figure 2, on which it can be noted that total catchand mean trophic level—two key indicators both ofsustainability and economic potential of fisheries—
have remained remarkably constant.

shIrEtoko: worlD hErItAgE sItE
On account of the outstanding features of the Shiretoko
region, the Government of Japan formulated a management plan and proposed the region for World Heritage
listing in January 2004. UNESCO and the World
Conservation Union (IUCN) reviewed the proposal
and management plan, and conducted a field evaluation in July 2004. The IUCN expressed concern that20

the level of protection for the marine components was
not high enough; in particular, they urged that walleye
pollock, a main food source for the Steller sea lions, bemanaged properly. They recommended that the impact

of construction along rivers in the peninsula on wild
populations of salmonids, which link the marine andterrestrial ecosystems, be examined. In February 2005,
IUCN formally requested that the marine componentof the site be expanded and that a marine management
plan be promptly formulated to ensure the protectionof marine species. IUCN’s concerns about the level ofprotection of marine species heightened apprehension
in the fisheries sector, where listing Shiretoko as a
World Heritage Site was initially unwelcome.
In response, in March 2005 the Japanese Government
committed to (i) extend the marine boundary from
one to three kilometres from the coastline; (ii) formulate a marine management plan within three years, and(iii) ensure appropriate management measures for theconservation of walleye, pollock, sea mammals andother marine species in the plan. With those assurances, Shiretoko was placed on the UNESCO World
Heritage list in July 2005.

Satoumi In shIrEtoko: workIng
wIth FIshErIEs For ConsErvAtIonmAnAgEmEnt
FIgurE 2. Catch statistics for twelve major exploited taxa,
total catch and mean trophic level (MTL, Pauly and Watson
2005) in the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage area, 1985
to 2002 (Japan Ministry of the Environment, and Hokkaido
Prefectural Government 2007). 1: walleye pollock, 2: chumsalmon, 3: common squid, 4: Arabesque greenling, 5: Pacificcod, 6: scallop, 7: kelp, 8: bighand thornyhead, 9: octopus
dolfleini, 10: pointhead flounder, 11: ivory shell, 12: Japanesesardine.

In Japan, there is no domestic law specific to World
Heritage listing, and management measures are
implemented under a combination of several laws
and policies (Table 1). In addition, administrative
procedures in Japan, as in many other countries,
are vertically structured, hindering cooperation andcoordination across ministries and departments. For
example, the Natural Park Law of 1957 does not give
the Ministry of Environment enough authority toregulate the impact of fisheries activities on marine

ecosystems, as those activities are managed by the
Fisheries Agency. Therefore, a new system of coordination among sectors and ministries was established
for the management of the Shiretoko WNH area, as
shown in Figure 3.
In July 2004, prior to Shiretoko’s WNH listing,
the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage Candidate
Site Scientific Council (presently Shiretoko World
Natural Heritage Site Scientific Council, hereinafter called Scientific Council), composed of experts
in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, was established with the aim of obtaining advice from ascientific perspective on integrating managementof its marine and terrestrial ecosystems and otherissues. The Scientific Council and working groups
are composed of natural scientists, social scientists,and representatives of ministries and departments
in central and local governments, of fisheries cooperatives, and NGOs. The council has three working
groups: the Marine Working Group for marine
ecosystem management, the River Construction
Working Group for improvement of river-related
constructions, and the Yezo Deer Working Groupfor Yezo deer management.
The Multiple Use Integrated Marine Management
Plan was drawn up by the Marine Working Groupin December 2007. It defines management measures to conserve the marine ecosystem, strategies
to maintain major species, monitoring methods,
and policies for marine recreational activities. The
fisheries sector has participated from the beginningof the drafting process. Local people have fished inthis area for a long time and have compiled data forover fifty years. This information has been incorporated into the monitoring scheme of the Shiretoko
ecosystem, enabling observation of the changes in
the functions and structure of the marine ecosystem.
In this way, fishers are recognized as an integral partof the ecosystem, and their data is utilized to monitor the ecosystem in a cost-effective way, following
the Management Plan.
Based on this plan, three management measures havebeen implemented for the Shiretoko World Heritagesite:(1) Walleye pollock and Steller sea lion
management

Walleye pollock is one of the most important fisheries
targets in the Shiretoko area. Shiretoko fishers catch

21

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 1: Shiretoko: Expanding Fisheries Co-Management to Ecosystem-Based Management

Table 1. Major laws and administrative authorities for Shiretoko WNH area management.
Service

Legal basis

Administrative authority

Fisheries
management

Fisheries Law of 1949, Fisheries Resource Protection
Law of 1951, Law Concerning the Conservation andManagement of Marine Life Resources of 1996

Fisheries Agency (Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

Pollution control

Law Relating to the Prevention of Marine and Air
Pollution from Ships and Maritime Disasters of 1970,
Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law of 1970,
Water Pollution Control Law of 1970

Coast Guard (Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism),
Ministry of Environment

Landscapeconservation andmaterial circulation

Law on the Administration and Management of
National Forests of 1951, Natural Parks Law of 1957,
Nature Conservation Law of 1972

Ministry of Environment, Forestry
Agency (Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries)

Species protection

Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties of 1950,
Law for Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora of 1992, Wildlife Protection andAppropriate Hunting Law of 2002

Ministry of Environment, Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology

the Nemuro stock of walleye pollock mainly by gillnet. Gillnet fishers have divided the fishery ground into
34 areas, based on their local knowledge and experience, and to conserve resources they declared sevenof these areas protected, including a portion of thewalleye pollock spawning ground. After Shiretoko’s
nomination for World Heritage listing, another six
areas were designated as protected, and the protectedareas are re-examined every year on the basis of theprevious year’s performance and scientific advice fromthe local research station.
The Okhotsk and Kuril population of the Steller sea
lion migrate from Russia to the Shiretoko WNH
area in winter. Fortunately, its size has been gradually increasing 1.2 per cent per year since the early
1990s (Burkanov and Loughlin 2005) and in 2007, theFisheries Agency of Japan revised the procedure forsetting the cull limit, basing it on the potential biological removal theory (Wade 1998), which is used under
the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

(2) Supporting the interrelationship between
marine and terrestrial ecosystems

Many anadromous salmonids return to rivers in
Shiretoko to spawn in fresh water. Wild salmonids(including hatchery-derived chum and pink salmon
that reproduce naturally in rivers) running upstream
serve as an important source of food for terrestrial
mammals and birds of prey, and they contribute tobiodiversity and sea-land material circulation. To
maintain and facilitate the interactions between
marine and terrestrial ecosystems, dams and otherengineering works have been modified since 2005

22

following scientific advice from the River Construction
Working Group. The working group surveyed 118 artificial constructions in Shiretoko and evaluated theirimpact on salmonids. It investigated possible structural modifications, taking into account their effects on
disaster risk. Some of the constructions were retained
because modifications could have increased the risk
level of disaster in densely populated areas. As of endof January 2008, 25 structures had been modified orwere being modified. To evaluate the effects of thesemeasures, a three-year programme is monitoring the
upstream run, number of spawning redds, substratecomposition, current velocity and discharge.

(3) Marine recreational activities

To prevent negative impacts from tourism on local
fisheries and the marine ecosystem, the Marine
Management Plan specifies that recreational activities are to be managed under rules formulated by theShiretoko National Park Committee for the Review ofProper Use. This committee is composed of academics, tourism and guide representatives, environmental
NGOs, and officers representing forestry, coast guard,
environment and local government. The committee
stipulates patrols and other activities to monitor tourist uses, formulates rules for tourists and promotes
ecotourism.

Conclusion
Under the Japanese fisheries co-management system,
coordination and stakeholder participation is limited
to the fisheries sector only, and no other marine

ecosystem users are included in the decision-making
process. In the Shiretoko case, however, a new coordinating system was established, and a wide range ofstakeholders from several sectors are now integrated.
This system facilitates the exchange of informationand opinions, and strengthens the legitimacy of the
management plans and rules. The long and central
institutional involvement of fisheries in Japan has
resulted in a different ecosystem-based management
framework from, for example, that of Iceland or New
Zealand, where market-based individual transferable
quotas are the central policy tool, another illustration that there is no unique path to conserve marine
ecosystems and sustain livelihoods (Grafton 2008).
Careful assessment of the existing institutionalframework and the potential role of the fisheries
sector in marine ecosystem management was critical for successfully managing conservation in thisWorld Heritage Site. In the Shiretoko case, satoumioriented conservation meant that the local fishers,
who had exploited a wide variety of species sustainably
for many centuries, were seen as an integral component of the ecosystem rather than unwanted extras
to be eliminated from the “original ecosystem”. In the
Shiretoko approach, local fishers are not something
to be managed or controlled, but indispensable, selfdriven role players in ecosystem-based management,
through the provision of critical ecosystem monitoring information and their proactive involvement
in conserving the resource. The Shiretoko approachprovides a field-tested case of ecosystem-based
management, satisfying the conservation requirementsof a UNESCO World Heritage, of most relevance toregions where large numbers of small-scale fishers
are utilizing a wide range of species under a fisheries
co-management regime.

References
Burkanov, N.V., and T.R. Loughlin. 2005. “Distribution
and abundance of Steller sea lions, Eumetoias jubatus,on the Asian coast, 1720s-2005.” Marine Fisheries
Review 67: 1-62.
Fisheries Research Agency of Japan. 2007. Fiscal Year2006 Stock Assessment Report for Nemuro Stock ofWalleye Pollock. [online] Available at: <http://abchan.
job.affrc.go.jp/digests18/details/1813.pdf>

resilience for complexity and change, edited by F.
Berkes, J. Colding, and C. Folke, 189-209. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Grafton, R.Q., R. Hilborn, L. Ridgeway, D. Squires, M.
Williams, S. Garcia, T. Groves, J. Joseph, K. Kelleher,
T. Kompas, G. Libecap, C.G. Lundin, M. Makino, T.
Matthiasson, R. McLoughlin, A. Parma, G.S. Martin,
B. Satia, C.C. Schmidt, M. Tait, and L.X. Zhang. 2008.
“Positioning fisheries in a changing world.” Marine
Policy 32: 630-34.
Makino, M., and H. Matsuda. 2005. “Co-management inJapanese coastal fishery: its institutional features andtransaction cost.” Marine Policy 29: 441-50.
Makino, M., and H.Matsuda. 2011. “Ecosystem-based
management in the Asia-Pacific area.” In Fishand aquatic resources series 14: world fisheries—asocial-ecological analysis, edited by R. Ommar, I.
Perry, P. Cury, and K. Cochrane, 322-33. London:
Wiley-Blackwells.
Makino, M., H. Matsuda, and Y. Sakurai. 2009.
“Expanding fisheries co-management to ecosystembased management: A case in the Shiretoko World
Natural Heritage Site, Japan.” Marine Policy 33: 207-14.
Matsuda, H., M. Makino, and Y. Sakurai. 2009,“Development of an adaptive marine ecosystemmanagement and co-management plan at theShiretoko World Natural Heritage Site.” BiologicalConservation 142: 1,937-42.
Ministry of Environment of the Government of Japan,
Hokkaido Prefectural Government. 2007. “The
multiple use integrated marine management plan.”
Ostrom, E., T. Dietz, N. Dolsak, P.C. Stern, S. Stonich,and E.U. Weber, ed. 2002. The drama of the commons.
Washington D.C.: National Academy Press.
Pauly, D., and R. Watson. 2005. “Background andinterpretation of the ‘marine trophic index’ as ameasure of biodiversity.” Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 360: 415-23.
Sakurai, Y. 2007. “An overview of the Oyashio ecosystem.”
Deep-Sea Research 2 (54): 2,526-42.
Shari Fisheries History Editing Committee. 1979. Historyof Shari fisheries. Shari Town (In Japanese).
Shiretoko Museum. 2001. Shiretoko no gyogyo [Fisheriesin Shiretoko], Shari: Association for Shiretoko
Museum (In Japanese).
Wade, P.R. 1998. “Calculating limits to the allowable
human-caused mortality of cetaceans and pinnipeds.”
Marine Mammal Science 14 (1): 1-37.
World Conservation Union (IUCN). 2005. Technical
Evaluation Report. Shiretoko (Japan) ID No: 1193.

Gadgil, M., P.Olsson, F. Berkes, and C. Folke. 2003.
“Exploring the role of local ecological knowledgein ecosystem management: three case studies.”
In Navigating social-ecological systems: building

23

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 2: Satoumi to Integrate Resource Conservation and use: Sandfish Fisheries in Akita Prefecture

Case study

satoumi to inteGrate resourCe Conservation
and use: sandFish Fisheries in akita PreFeCture2

tomoya Akimichi1 and hideki sugiyama2
1
2

Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047 Japan. E-mail: akimichi@chikyu.ac.jp
Akita Prefectural University, 34-3 Shintouda-Takanashidai, Akita City, Akita, 010-0826 Japan. E-mail: sugiyama-zacco@mti.biglobe.ne.jp

ABstrACt
Conservation efforts to protect the sargassum seaweed beds that provide spawning grounds for Japanese
sandfish (Jp. hatahata; Arctoscopus japonicus) are a good example of local fisheries management thathighlights traditional practices of the satoumi. Sandfish fisheries in Akita are active in coastal satoumi
waters as well as offshore waters in north-west Japan. After a drastic decline in catch in 1991, a threeyear moratorium was enforced between 1992 and 1995. The reason for the decline was presumed tobe complex, but three major overall factors are relevant: (1) a climate change induced regime shift, (2)overfishing and inappropriate fisheries practices, and (3) degradation of the satoumi over the past few
decades. Since the resumption of sandfish fisheries in 1995, total allowable catch (TAC) allocations,use of artificial hatcheries, and restoration programs for seaweed beds have been launched to support
sustainable sandfish fisheries. The focus, however, has tended to be on the governance of TAC allocations among user groups, rather than on ecosystem-oriented approaches such as restoration of sargassum
beds. The concept of satoumi provides a basis to integrate conservation of coastal biodiversity with thesustainable use of its components in sandfish fisheries, as illustrated by the seaweed transplantation andforestation programmes launched by coastal communities. Efforts to conserve seaweed beds to nurture
sandfish fisheries are expected to lead to an integrated coastal management framework linking forestsand offshore waters through satoumi.

sEAwEED BEDs As homElAnD oF AquAtIC
lIFE AnD sAnDFIshThe Japanese sandfish (Figure 1) migrates between
coastal spawning grounds and offshore feeding areas(Watanabe et al. 2005). It is found widely in thewaters of the Sea of Japan, and is an important fishery resource in the area. Abundant runs of sandfish
towards coastal waters occur in the midst of the thunderstorms in winter along the Akita coast, and havelong brought in a rich food resource to local inhabitants. This case study reports on the sandfish fisheries in
Akita Prefecture as an example of consensus-making
for resource conservation, and as it provides keys forunderstanding the valuable role of satoumi for theconservation of coastal ecosystems.

FIgurE 1. Photograph of female (upper) and male
(lower) sandfish.

24

The life cycle of the Japanese sandfish is unique(Figure 2). Young adult and adult fish live in 250mdeep waters of 1.5°C temperature. As their gonads
mature, the fish move towards coastal waters during
the seasons when the water surface temperature
decreases to about 13°C (Sakuramoto et al. 1997).
Hitherto, these spawning runs start around the endof November and continue through the middle ofDecember in the stormy winter weather. Spawning
occurs in sargassum seaweed beds at a depth of
1.5-2.5m and continues for a few weeks in December.
The roe stick together in golf ball-sized lumps weighing about 10-60g, each lump consisting of 600 to 2,500
eggs. Numerous roe lumps are found entwined in
the seaweed beds. Besides natural seaweed beds,
suspended nets also serve as spawning sites where
fertilization takes place. After fifty to sixty days theadult fish return to deep waters, and the fingerlings
start to swim soon after the roe hatch in the middleof February to the beginning of March. Juvenile fish
remain in coastal waters until May and then move
down to cold waters 200m deep and further. Juvenile
sandfish feed on zooplankton in coastal waters, but
young adult and adult fish forage mainly on temist(small-sized shrimp) in the deep sea. Thus, an abundance of seaweed beds in a satoumi is key to ensuring
the life cycle of the sandfish. Seaweed beds also enrich
the coastal ecosystem for other diverse forms ofmarine life. The sandfish fishing grounds in Akita
Prefecture are shown on Figure 3.

25

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 2: Satoumi to Integrate Resource Conservation and use: Sandfish Fisheries in Akita Prefecture

not oppose the government policy of public works
projects that promoted coastal fisheries development,
without sufficient attention to the need to conserve
seaweed beds for sustainable fisheries.

The moratorium policy and its enforcement

Figure 3. Fishing grounds of sandfish in Akita Prefecture.

Sandfish fisheries and resource
management

mately did adopt a moratorium, and its success wasmade possible by a long process of consensus building.

Pre-moratorium phase, 1896-1992

Unfortunately, the role of the degradation of thesatoumi in the decline of catches received little
attention at that time. Modifications of the coastal
landscape, land reclamation and land-based sources ofpollution could have been seen as critical factors in thedestruction of the sandfish habitat. Although certain
fishers recognized that the decline of the catches camein the wake of the construction of a new fishing port
and the installation of breakwater blocks, they dared

The collapse prompted fishermen, prefectural government officials and fisheries scientists to explore every
possible means to recover the fish stock. In 1985, Akita
Prefecture established a Council on Fisheries Resource
Management, whose conclusions led to the propositionof a moratorium or zero TAC (total allowable catch).
From the beginning, consensus-making among thestakeholders was difficult, but the fisheries sector ulti-

26

Amount of Catch (ton)		
  Unit Price (Jp.Yen/kg)	

Amount of Catch (ton)The cause of this collapse is debated. Certain fisheryscientists point to inappropriate management andoverfishing; others argue that the abrupt local effects
of global climate change occurring is the main cause(Watanabe et al. 2005). The Akita Fisheries Promotion
Centre reported that the fluctuation cycle of the sandfish population is about 37 years. At present, the sharp
decline in catches during the mid-1970s is thought tobe due to environmental factors, while the continuous poor catch since then is ascribed to overfishing.

Catch(tons)

According to catch records in Akita between 1896 and2010, the catch of sandfish has had important fluctuations (Figure 4). The figures show that total catch rose
rapidly to over 10,000 tons between 1963 and 1975,
then abruptly decreased after 1976. In 1983, total catchfell to less than 1,000 tons, and in 1991 to only 74 tons.

					  	  	  	  	  	  	
 

	
 

	
 

	
 

Unit Price (Jp. Yen/kg)

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the life cycle of theJapanese sandfish. Spawning occurs in sargassum seaweed
beds, an important habitat for many species in thisecosystem. Through this life cycle, the sandfish connects
the ecosystem in deep offshore waters with nearshore
processes.

As the local Fishery Cooperation Association (FCA)
perceptions and attitudes towards the moratorium
policy were diverse, serious political antagonism
had to be overcome, entailing a time-consuming
negotiation process. Certain FCAs were opposedto the moratorium because of the dependence of
local fishers on sandfish catches during the spawningseason. Other FCAs that operate bottom-trawling vessels on a year-round basis also opposed thepolicy because of the income loss for their operations. This was a case of negative spiral of fisheries:
the decrease in stock led to an increase in the priceof sandfish (Figure 5), which in turn led the fishers to intensify their efforts, further depleting thestock. Fisheries scientists argued energetically topersuade fishermen to comply with the moratorium
to allow the stock to recover and break out of thisnegative spiral. Following a series of intense discussions, a consensus was reached and the fishers agreed
on a moratorium in 1992. All of the local FCAs in
Akita came to follow the governmental proposal in
the hope that a three-year ban would give twice asmuch harvest as before. It is worth mentioning that
the Akita FCAs went ahead with the ban in spiteof then-unresolved negotiations with neighbouring prefectures which shared the resource, and did
not enforce a ban. Eventually, a treaty of sandfish
resource management prohibiting the catch of young	 	

Year

Figure 4. Time series of sandfish landing reported in Akita
Prefecture, 1896-2010, showing the rapid rise in the 60s
followed by the collapse in 1976, and the positive result of thethree-year moratorium from 1992-1995.

Figure 5. Relationship between sandfish catch and price. The
price increase due to reduced catch led the fishers to intensify
their efforts, further depleting the resource in a negative spiral(see text).

fish less than 15cm long was reached with the neighbouring prefectures in March 1999. The treaty was
renewed and is effective to 2014.

Consensus building in the post-moratorium
phase

Since the resumption of sandfish fisheries in 1995,
after the three-year ban, the Akita prefectural government, together with the FCAs, began to negotiate theallocation of TAC for the sustainable management of
the sandfish stock. In 1995, a maximum TAC of 170
tons was allocated among the stakeholders. An ethic
of equitable allocation of TAC, based on past fishingrecords by each of the FCAs, was key to the success inbalancing immediate demand for sandfish with considerations for conserving the resource (Nakanishi and
Sugiyama 2004). Throughout the pre-moratorium,
moratorium and post-moratorium stages, numerous
meetings were held at different levels and on various
occasions. It is noteworthy that 40 per cent of the total
meetings were those held at the district level (Table 1).

Satoumi-oriented resource
management
Marine resources management in Japan cannot be
simply dictated from above, as is widely documented
for many cases around the world. Marine Protected
Areas (MPAs) have many times been successful inproviding benefits in coastal fisheries, but in Japan,
time-honoured territorial claims and relevant institutions in near-shore waters (Ruddle and Akimichi 1984)
further complicate the consensus and compliance of
stakeholders from various sectors for establishing
MPAs. For sandfish, various types, of restrictions,
including catch quotas, mesh size, closed seasons,and fishing gear types have been implemented, but
the most effective measure so far has been the TAC
system. However, adequately accounting for important fluctuations in the population of sandfish is an
important challenge.
Thus, there are compelling reasons to complement these restriction-based measures with a more
distinctly satoumi, ecosystem-oriented approach
involving the protection and conservation of spawning sites in coastal waters, to ensure the long-term
resource supply not only of sandfish but also othermarine life. In Akita Prefecture, alterations of thecoastal environment during the 1960s and 1970s, withlittle knowledge and consideration for the ecosystem

27

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 2: Satoumi to Integrate Resource Conservation and use: Sandfish Fisheries in Akita Prefecture

Table 1. Number of meetings held at different levels, from fishers to nationwide, as part of theefforts to manage the sandfish resource sustainably. FCA: local fisheries cooperation association,
WG: working group of the prefectural government. The Sea District covers the coastal waters off
Aomori, Akita, Yamagata and Niigata Prefectures.
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Acknowledgements

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structure and functions, brought about the deterioration of coastal seaweed beds. As a case in point, inthe 1970s a coastal protection levee some 600m long
was constructed in the midst of the seaweed beds at
Kitaura, which had been one of the major spawning
grounds for sandfish on the Akita coast. A decline
in the seaweed beds during this period was linked
to the spectacular increase in sandfish roe (buriko)washed ashore during the winter season. The shore wasfound covered with piles of buriko. Research on artificial sandfish spawning sites, carried out since 1998,
estimates the average number of buriko that adhered
to the base of drifting seaweed as 58.5 per unit base,31.7 for large mesh sized net, and 5.8 for a small meshnet. These figures suggest that seaweed beds have thegreatest potential as spawning sites, as had long beenrecognized by fishers.
Between 1997 and 2008, the Akita prefectural government attempted to create seaweed beds on artificial
blocks. A total of 4.5 hectares on the Akita coastal
zones were set aside for this purpose, with the prefectural government investing the equivalent of US$ 2
million over three years.
Also, since 1996, coastal communities have started
forestation programmes, including in Kisagata wheremore than 8,200 beech (Fagus crenata) and oak(Quercus mongolica) trees were planted to enhancethe various ecological roles played by forests (MEA2005). These forests are expected to nurture a rich
supply of nutrients which will be transported to28

grow in waters enriched with mountain forest nutrients, to maturing in deep offshore waters, calls forsuch management integrating offshore, nearshore andmountain regulations and activities.

coastal waters via ground water, streams, and rivers.
Kisagata, the coastline at the base of Mt. Chokai(2,236m), is well known as a spawning site of sandfish and as a good habitat for Japanese oysters (Ostrea
nipponica). In Akita, sea-bottom springs bring nutrient-rich ground water from the forest and mountains
that favour growth of seaweed and oysters (Taniguchi
2010; Sugiyama 2010). The satoumi ecosystem andlandscape is hence underpinned by this link between
sea and mountain. The sandfish, on the other hand,migrate between the deep seas and the nearshore
Sargassum beds, linking coastal and offshore waters.
In part thanks to satoumi, this link was eventuallyreflected in the cooperation of offshore trawling fishers and nearshore set net fishers to more sustainably
manage and nurture the shared stock of sandfish.
The ominous warning from the story of hatahata fishing in Akita is that consensus could not be reacheduntil after the collapse of the fisheries. The positive
lesson, however, is that in the face of many challenges, sustained effort for dialogue with local fisheries
cooperative organizations, energetic involvement ofscientists and political will eventually allowed rapid
progress towards more sustainable fishing practices.
The moratorium and fishing regulations were complemented with more satoumi-oriented conservation
measures, with the fishers and coastal communities’
engagement in forestation, and through active restoration of sargassum seaweed beds with transplants
and creation of artificial beds. The life cycle of thehatahata, from spawning in sargassum beds which

This article presents certain results of the project on“Ecosystem Services Assessment of Satoyama, Satochi
and Satoumi to Identify New Common Ground for
a Nature-Harmonious Society (E-0902)” promotedby the Japanese government’s Environment Research
and Technology Development Fund, Ministry ofEnvironment. The authors would like to express their
gratitude for the financial support of the Ministryof Environment. We are indebted to Mr. Kikuji
Sasaki, former representative of the Akita Fisheries
Cooperative Association, for providing useful information during our field survey.

Taniguchi, M. 2010. “Ground water under the sea at Mt.
Chokai” In Water and life: a report from Mt. Chokai,edited by T. Akimichi, 50-69. Tsuruoka: Tohoku
Publishing Planning (In Japanese).
Watanabe, K., K. Sakuramoto, H. Sugiyama, and N.
Suzuki. 2005. “Collapse of the Arctoscopus japonicus
catch in the Sea of Japan—environmental factors oroverfishing.” Global Environmental Research 9 (2):131-37.
Watanabe, K., H. Sugiyama, S. Sugishita, N. Suzuki, and
K. Sakuramoto. 2005. “Estimating and monitoring
the stock size of sandfish Arctoscopus japonicus in the
Northern Sea of Japan.” Fisheries Science 71: 776-83.

References
Akimichi, T. 2001. “Species-oriented resource managementand dialogue on reef fish conservation: a case study
from small-scale fisheries in Yaeyama Islands,
Southwestern Japan.” In Understanding the cultures offishing communities: a key to fisheries management andfood security, edited by J.R. McGoodwin, 109-31. FAO
Fisheries Technical Paper 401.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Marine Resources
Conservation Working Group (APEC-MRCWG), ed.
1998. Proceedings of destructive fishing practices on themarine environment 16-18 December 1997, Agriculture
and Fisheries Department, Hong Kong.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). 2005.
Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis.
Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Nakanishi, T., and H. Sugiyama. 2004. “The allocation of
TAC and the decision making of the sandfish fisheries
management in Akita Prefecture.” The Study ofRegional Fisheries 44 (1): 1-14.
Ruddle, K., and T. Akimichi, T., ed. 1984. “Maritime
institutions in the Western Pacific.” Senri EthnologicalStudies No. 17.
Sakuramoto, K., T. Kitahara, and H. Sugiyama. 1997.
“Relationship between temperature and fluctuations
in sandfish catch (Arctoscopus japonicus) in the coastal
waters off Akita Prefecture.” ICES Journal of Marine
Science 54: 1-12.
Sugiyama, H. 2010. “Sandfish and oyster nurtured in thewaters off Mt. Chokai.” In Water and life: a report from
Mt. Chokai, edited by T. Akimichi, 126-141. Tsuruoka:
Tohoku Publishing Planning (In Japanese).

29

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 3: Fisher Activities to Conserve the Ecosystem of Toyama Bay

Case study
ABstrACt

Fisher aCtivities to Conserve the eCosystemoF toyama bay

3

For over 400 years, the waters of Toyama Bay have been fished with set nets (teichi ami), and the local
culture and cuisine has evolved in ways that made sustainable use of the harvest of this locally-invented
fishing method. In recent years, set net fishing has drawn attention as potentially more sustainable thantrawling and the other methods employed in the bay, in part because set nets let over two-thirds of the
fish escape. Although total fish catch in Toyama Bay has remained relatively stable, the ecosystem degradation has been severe, and local fishers, often the first to observe and bear the consequences, have been
spurred to preserve their resources. Results of early attempts at releasing farmed fish fry in the bay were
not satisfying, and the awareness steadily rose that the bay ecosystem, its habitats and its biodiversity had
to be conserved all together in order to preserve the fishing resource. The fishers now take part in watershed forestry to help manage runoff into the bay. To combat eutrophication and provide essential habitatfor juveniles, they cultivate and harvest makombu kelp and transplant Zostera marina seagrass. By thesecontributions to ecosystem conservation, the fishers are patiently nurturing a satoumi seascape that isrespectful of their world view, at the core of which is a deep gratitude for the bounty bestowed by the sea.

ryo tsujimoto
Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC), 5-5 Ushijima shinmachi, Toyama City, Toyama, 930-0856 Japan.
E-mail: tsujimoto@npec.or.jp

thE hIstory oF ECosystEm usE In
toyAmA BAy
Located on the West Coast of Japan in the bend of
the Noto Peninsula on its east side, Toyama Bay is an
inner bay open to the sea with a total surface area ofapproximately 2,120km2, a maximum water depth of
1,250m, and a total volume of 1,280km3 (Imamura etal. 1985; Figure 1). Toyama Bay is a deepwater bay
in which the continental shelf is narrow and goes
extremely deep, and the deep area of the bay has acomplicated seafloor topography including submarine valleys and spurs (Fujii 1985). The main water
masses in the bay are those of the Tsushima Warm
Current (TWC) in areas of depth less than 300m,
and of the Japan Sea Proper Water (JSPW) in areas
deeper than 300 m (Uchiyama 2005). Toyama Bay
lies between two prefectures, Toyama and Ishikawa4,
with the smaller Nanao Bay (in Ishikawa Prefecture;
see Case Study 4), lying westward in the bend of thepeninsula. Five class-A rivers and 29 class-B rivers5
flow into Toyama Bay and strongly influence its environment (Tsujimoto 2009).

islands, 774 fish species are thought to live in the Sea ofJapan, of which 524 species are found in Toyama Bay(Masuda et al. 1988; Tsuda 1990). Another 31 species(25 squid species and 6 octopus species) also inhabit
the bay (Hayashi 1997). This abundance of organisms
has supported a wide variety of fishery activities with
set net fishing as the mainstay.

Birthplace of the set net

A set net is a fishing device made up of a leader net
and a main net (Figure 2). Migrating fish are directedto the main net along the leader net. Daily hauling inToyama Bay’s deep, complicated seafloor topography,
as well as two heterogeneous water masses, results
in a large number of fish species in its waters. Of theestimated 3,362 fish species present on the Japanese30

4Statistical data referred to in this report is for the
Toyama Prefecture, unless otherwise indicated.

5

In Japan, Class A refers to rivers of national significance, and consequently nationally administered,
while Class B rivers are administered by prefectural
governments.

FIgurE 1. JAXA-ALOS Satellite image of Toyama
Bay on May 25, 2006. Note river plumes spreading
into the bay. Image courtesy of JAXA.

31

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Figure 2. Set net fishing in Toyama Bay neighbouring
satoyama. Photograph courtesy of Toyama Prefectural
Fisheries Research Institute.

of the main net makes it possible to catch live fish. The
projection of the Noto Peninsula protects the bay fromthe northwest winter wind, ensuring calm seas suitable for the installation of set nets.
Toyama Bay is one of the birthplaces of set net fishingin Japan, along with Nagato and Hizen, Oga Peninsula,and Mutsu and Hokkaido (Hayashi 1996). Set net fishing in the bay for at least four centuries is attested byits mention in a tax receipt from 16156. This fishingmethod and equipment were continuously improved
and passed on to the present. Up until the 1940s, theset net was made of natural materials—rice straw cordor hemp thread, bamboo, and sticks of wood. Cord
made of twisted straws was woven into nets, and buoys
made of bamboo and the paulownias wood (Jp. kiri;
Paulownia tomentosa) were used to suspend the net
from the surface.

632This historical document could be translated as“Receipt of the tax claimed to the summer set net settlement called Sawa-no-niban in Himi-gun Unamiura for 1614 by the Kaga Domain (Jp. kaga-han)”.

Case Study 3: Fisher Activities to Conserve the Ecosystem of Toyama Bay

Fisheries production

Figure 3 shows fisheries production in Toyama
Prefecture from 1953. Total catch increased from
21,000 tons to 43,000 tons between 1953 and 1983.
During this time, fishing efficiency developed throughimprovement of equipment, and total fish resourceswere increased with the species replacement by horsemackerel (Jp. ma-aji; Trachurus japonicas), Japanese
anchovy (Jp. katakuchi-iwashi; Engraulis japonicas), and Japanese sardine (Jp. ma-iwashi; Sardinops
melanostictu). In recent years, fisheries production
has stabilised at around 20,000 tons, in contrast to
many areas where overexploitation through commercial large-scale fishing has caused a collapse of stocks.
Set net fishing contributes 70 to 80 per cent of total
fisheries production, in recent years mostly throughfishing of yellowtail (Jp. buri; Seriola quinqueradiata),
horse mackerel, chub mackerel (Jp. ma-saba; Scomber
japonicas), Japanese Spanish mackerel (Jp. sawara;
Scomberomorus niphonius) and common squid (Jp.
surume-ika; Todarodes pacificus). The abovementioned
fish seasonally migrate all the way from the Yellow
Sea. In set net fishing, migratory fish are dominant,but local sedentary fish are also harvested.

Coupling of mountain and bay ecosystems

50000	
  45000	
  40000	
  35000	
  Total	
  catch	  Catch	
  from	  set	  net	
  ﬁshing	
  30000	
  25000	
  20000	
  15000	
  10000	
  
5000	
  
0	
  
1953	
  
1955	
  
1957	
  
1959	
  
1961	
  
1963	
  
1965	
  
1967	
  
1969	
  
1971	
  
1973	
  
1975	
  
1977	
  
1979	
  
1981	
  
1983	
  
1985	
  
1987	
  
1989	
  
1991	
  
1993	
  
1995	
  
1997	
  
1999	
  
2001	
  
2003	
  
2005	
  
2007	
  
2009	
  

A large volume of river water flows into Toyama
Bay, creating a low salinity water area that
extends some 10 km from the shore. Rivers
supply nutrients and sediments to the coastalsea, playing an important role in sustaining ahigh level of biological productivity and biodiversity in the coastal ecosystem. The rivers
supply nutrients essential for phytoplankton
primary production. In addition, in the eastern
coastal area of Toyama Bay, submarine seepageof groundwater has been identified (Zhang andSatake 2003; Hatta et al. 2005). Downwind of
Toyama Bay, the Japanese Northern Alps soar toover 3,000 meters, resulting in a large quantityof precipitation and snow (Figure 4). Mountainrainfall eventually drains down to the Toyama
Bay coastal area, part of it after a long transit
as groundwater. Land-supplied freshwater andnutrients sustain a high primary productivity(phytoplankton growth) that supports a luxuriant food web attracting a wide variety of fish
species that migrate great distances to feed in
the bay.

Catch	
  (t)	
  Since the 1940s, most of the nets for set net fishinghave been replaced with synthetic fibre, while woodbuoys are now made of glass, plastic, or aluminium.
One exception is for firefly squid (Jp. hotaru-ika;
Watasenia scintillans) fishing, in which the leader netof the set net continues to be made of rice straw cord.
The firefly squid has a mantle length of approximately
5cm and photophores covering its body. The primary
harvesting season is from March to June. The luminous firefly squid has become a tourist attraction for
the region, and is served sliced as sashimi (i.e. raw)
and as boiled seafood, both local delicacies. Once,an attempt was made to replace the rice-straw nets
and straw nets with synthetic fibre nets. But the fireflysquid catch was poor that year, so the fishers returnedto the use of straw-made nets. It is believed that thenatural straw materials make it possible to direct the
firefly squid to the main part of the net without scaring
them. The nets are fixed with anchors made of sandbags filled with river gravel. Fishers go to sea even in
winter to haul in the nets. They light wood fires on
their ships to warm themselves while going to andreturning from the fishing grounds. The materials forthe straw nets, firewood and gravel traditionally used
are all found in the nearby mountains, one of many
ways in which fisheries have linked the satoyama andsatoumi since long ago.

Figure 3. Total catch and catch from set net fishing in Toyama
Bay (1953–2010). Source: Toyama Prefecture Bulletin of Statistics
on Forestry and Fisheries (1953-2000) and Toyama Prefecture
Fisheries Research Institute (2001 to 2010).

Management systems

In Toyama Bay, set net fisheries are governed
under a specific management regime, whileother coastal fisheries are governed under the
district regime. Set nets are classified as either
Figure 4. Set nets in Toyama Bay with the Japanese Northernlarge set nets or small set nets depending on the
Alps (Mt. Tateyama) in the background. Photograph courtesy ofdepth of the water in which the net is installed,
Touzawa Art Printing Co., LTD.
with different names such as “buri (yellowtail)set net”, “iwashi (sardine and anchovy) set net”
and “hotaru-ika (firefly squid) set net”, depending In contrast to large encircling nets and trawling, whereon the sought-after species. Licenses are given to the fishers pursue fish, set net fishing is a “passive method”
owners and the Fisheries Cooperative Associations in which fishers catch only the fish that come into thebased on set net rights and common fishery rights.
net. It is estimated that only 20 to 30 per cent of suchincoming fish are actually caught. Over the centuries,
Allocation of resources between set net fishing and the local communities developed knowledge and techother types of large-scale fishing has been prob- nology that made effective use of all harvested marine
lematic. Other methods can (at least temporarily) resources, from large to small fish. Set nets typicallyincrease harvest through a more aggressive pursuit operate in fishing grounds within 4km of the port,of fish, which set net fishing cannot, and yields from reducing fuel consumption significantly compared to
the latter will decrease in proportion to the increase other fishing methods.
for the former. Fair resource allocation is important inorder to achieve more sustainable exploitation.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, in other methods
fish can be hunted down over large distances, so that
Potential advantages of set net fishing forfishers may look to compensate for a drop in ecosystem productivity by fishing further/longer, or invest
sustainability
While a great diversity of fishing methods are used in labour saved by gear improvement into increasing
the bay, the set net is by and large the most common. their area of exploitation. In contrast, set net fishing33

CBD Technical Series No. 61

can only harvest over a fixed area, fishing time cannot
be increased either, and the prerequisite for viable
operation is that a wide variety of fish and shellfish
inhabit and migrate to this area—in other words, thelocal ecosystem must remain healthy. Hence, for set
net fishing, labour saved by technology is more readily
invested into actions that sustain ecosystem productivity, as is illustrated in the many labour-intensive
conservation activities that the fishers of Toyama
Bay are conducting, as described in the section on
resource and ecosystem conservation activities below.
For these reasons, set net fishing has drawn attention
as a fishing method that could more readily accommodate sustainability and conservation requirements,
provided exploitation remains within sustainablelevels. Nonetheless, many structural changes, including
those taking place within the setting of the economy
and market, remain to be enacted to take advantage
of set net fishing’s features for sustainability.

International cooperation

The Himi Fisheries Cooperative, Himi City, theJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center(SEAFDEC), and the Tokyo University of Marine
Science and Technology have collaborated in a
project to share the set net fishing method with fishers in Thailand. Fishers from the city of Himi visitedThailand and Thai fishers were invited to Himi tosee demonstrations of set net fishing operations.
Encouraging results led to replication of this projectin other countries including Indonesia, Costa Rica,
Cambodia, and Morocco.

Anthropic pressures on theecosystem

Eutrophication

Excess supply of nutrients to coastal sea areas causes
eutrophication, deteriorating water quality, favouring the occurrence red tides, hypoxia or anoxia inbottom water, and a decline in benthos abundanceand diversity. Areas adjacent to urban river mouths are
particularly impacted. Since the 1960s and the subsequent rapid economic growth period, factories havebeen continuously constructed along Japan’s coasts,
and discharge from these plants, together with household effluents, has significantly impacted water quality
in many coastal areas, including Toyama Bay. Fisheries
have been adversely affected by the resulting degradation of the ecosystem. One example has been the rise

34

Case Study 3: Fisher Activities to Conserve the Ecosystem of Toyama Bay

in the predominance of jellyfish. Transported fromdistant eutrophic areas by ocean currents, jellyfish
have been caught in set nets in Toyama Bay in large
quantities. This phenomenon has steadily increasedin frequency, much to the detriment of the fisheries
industry (Uye 2008).

Forest, rivers and sea

According to Mr. Tsunenobu Yano, a fisherman who
engaged in set net fishing near the mouth of theriver, “Disaster comes from the upper reaches of theriver”. In addition to pollution, rivers have carried anincreased amount of driftwood. This is linked to thedecline in the quality of forest management in themountains of the local watershed. Driftwood tangles
the set nets and tears their netting, and to remove it ispainstaking and time-consuming. Driftwood damage
tends to occur frequently after heavy rains that trigger
landslides in mountainous areas. A revival of managed
forestry should increase the water-retaining capacity of the mountains, prevent driftwood outflow, andstabilise soil erosion and nutrient input in the bay. It
is hoped that such good forest-management practices
will pave the way for enhanced marine productivity.

Natural threats

Set nets are also vulnerable to certain ocean conditions, particularly high waves, and kyucho tend tocause damage. Kyucho refers to abnormally strong
currents induced after the passage of typhoons or
low pressure systems, which can break or sweep away
coastal set nets (Matsuyama 2005). Kyucho damage inthe several billions of yen is reported in Toyama andthe Noto Peninsula (Hayashi and Ino 2005; Okei et al.
2008). Although it has been recorded in this region
since ancient times, the mechanisms of kyucho remain
poorly understood. Set net fishers know from experience that they can prevent damage to their nets by
hauling them out before storms break, but this entails
significant labour. Recently-developed kyucho-resistant fishing equipment and more accurate forecasting
improved through numerical modelling are expected
to help in managing this risk.

Resource and ecosystemconservation activities

Water quality conservation measures

Fishers were the first to raise their voices about theneed to address the problem of eutrophication in
Toyama Bay during the rapid growth period. The

Japanese government enacted the Water Pollution
Control Act in 1970, and local authorities enacted
stricter municipal regulations on factory effluents.

Marine environment monitoring

Concerned about the accelerating pollution of theircoastal waters, local fishers have long monitored theirfishing ground environment. Once a month, fishers
collect water samples and measure water temperature in 36 set net locations. The Toyama Federationof Fisheries Cooperative Associations collects andtransports water samples, which are analysed by the
Toyama Prefectural Fisheries Research Institute for
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), salinity, turbidity and pH. These three parties in collaboration havecontinuously monitored these parameters since 1971.
In addition, fishers notify governmental agencies andother organizations of the occurrence of red tideand oil pollution. Set net fishers have thus provided
crucial data for managing the ecosystem of the bay(Tsujimoto 2005).

ble catch was imposed for the deep sea red snow crab
(Jp. benizuwai-gani; Chionoecetes japonicus).

Tree planting and watershed-scale ecosystemconservation

The expression, “Mori wa umi no koibito” (the forestis the sweetheart of the sea) (Hatakeyama 1994)
aptly expresses the way the mountains, rivers andcoastal ecosystems coupled, and has become a kindof catchphrase reminding fishers to turn their eyes tothe mountains. Fishers in Toyama and their family
members began visiting mountain areas in neighbouring regions located in the upper reaches of rivers
flowing into Toyama Bay. In these mountain areas,
they engaged in tree planting activities toward creation of what are known as “fisher forests” (Figure 5).

Stock enhancement and management

As fish farming technology developed, fishers began
releasing fish fry into the bay with the hope that thiswould increase stocks. Stock enhancement has beenpromoted by the Japanese government and local
authorities since the 1960s. A fish farming centre wasestablished in this region in 1978, where the youth
group of the local fishery cooperative association
contributes to the production and release of fish fry.
In the meantime, coastal development resulted in adecrease of shallow areas and seagrass beds. The fishers
were quick to observe that the lack of results from therelease of fish fry was related to the gradual disappearance of these habitats, which are essential nursery andfeeding grounds for juveniles. It soon became apparent that simply attempting to increase the number ofthe exploited species, with no regard for the ecosystemand the rest of the food web, would not be effective.
The conservation and restoration of shallow areas andseaweed beds, on the other hand, provides habitats fora wide diversity of species.
Fishers discussed and implemented stock management
measures, such as regulating fishing season and fishing gear and setting size limitation. For example, small
red seabream (Jp. ma-dai; Pargus major) had to bereleased and their sale was prohibited, mesh size wasincreased for pot fisheries targeting pink shrimp (Jp.
hokkokuaka-ebi; Pandalus eous), and annual allowa-

Figure 5. Tree planting by fishers and their family
members in the upper reaches of the rivers flowing into
Toyama Bay. Photograph courtesy of JF Uozu.

Several times a year, fishers go to the mountain slopes,
planting over one hundred trees at a time, with a totalof over a thousand trees every year. While forests inJapan tend to be planted with conifers for forestry
purposes, fishers preferentially planted deciduous trees
with the expectation that fallen leaves will enrich thenutrients cycling out to the sea. These include chestnut (Jp. kuri; Castanea crenata), zelkova (Jp. keyaki;
Zelkova serrata) and cherry (Jp. yamazakura; Prunus
jamasakura). Oak acorns are picked and planted,
and saplings are transplanted the following year. The
launching of a study to quantitatively assess fisher
forest influence on the coastal waters is anticipatedin the near future.

35

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 3: Fisher Activities to Conserve the Ecosystem of Toyama Bay

Acknowledgements

Box 1: Uotsukirin—the fish-breeding forest
Osamu Matsuda, Hiroshima University
From the perspective of current challenges in biodiversity management, two noteworthy aspects of satoumi are
the seamless internalisation of the labour involved in essential ecosystem management practices, and the roleof humans in regulating the interaction of the terrestrial and marine parts of coastal and watershed ecosystems.
The ancient tradition of the uotsukirin, or fish-breeding forest, combines these two aspects. The uotsukirin system
was formalised into a modern legal system during the Meiji Era in 1897 as part of the forest law, but it is basedon practices already well established over much of Japan in the 17th century, and even mentioned in 10th century
literature. Uotsukirin practices expanded rapidly after the 17th century in the context of efforts to promote sardine
fisheries, an essential food source and widely-needed ingredient for lamp oil and agricultural manure. The crucialrole of watershed forestry in coastal ecosystem productivity was well-known to fishers since these times. In the20th century scientific investigation revealed some of the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. Nowadays,
tree planting activities of fishers’ cooperatives contribute significantly to watershed forestry, reviving an ancientconnection between satoumi and satoyama. These practices are central to many of the satoumi activities around
Japan, and are described in more detail in the Akita and Toyama case studies and in the box on ecological links
between terrestrial and coastal areas in the Yura river estuary and the Tango Sea.

Seaweed cultivation

Seaweed is an important food in Japan, and its cultivation can have many benefits for the environments,
such as provision of nursery grounds for juvenile fish,
water purification and carbon dioxide sequestration.
The youth group of the fisheries cooperative cultivatesmakombu kelp (Jp. makombu; Saccharina japonica)
as part of its environmental preservation activities(Figure 6; Yano 2006; Matsuda 2010). The primary
purpose is to utilise the strong nutrient absorption
capabilities of seaweed to prevent eutrophication. Dueto the high water temperature in summer in Toyama
Bay, kelp does not survive through the summer.

Figure 6. Youth group activities of local fisheries
cooperatives include cultivation of makombu
kelp to purify the water and help prevent
eutrophication in the Bay. Photograph courtesy of
JF Shinminato.

36

Therefore, the youth groups plant sporophytes in
December and harvest the kelp in May and June of
the following year. In addition, seaweed beds havebeen developed through the introduction of concrete
algal reefs and placement of natural rocks. Moreover,as a part of their practical training, local high school
students studying marine science are transplanting
eelgrass (Jp. amamo; Zostera marina).

Conclusion
Set net fishing has been practiced for over 400 years
in Toyama Bay, with the local food culture adapting
to best use the available species for each season. Overthe centuries, the fishers in the bay have constantly
adapted their activities, shifting from developing new
fishing grounds, to improving their fishing techniques;
they later practised stock enhancement and resource
management, and are now in the process of expanding
environmental conservation activities such as watershed forestry, and restoration and enhancement of theseaweed beds. These more holistic (more ecosystembased) approaches to conserving fishery resources
naturally came forth as awareness rose that a richdiversity of organisms is necessary for the ecosystem
to be both sustainable and productive. The satoumi
in Toyama Bay may be described as a coastal sea thatfishers have made productive and sustainable. A strong
sense of gratitude for the bounty bestowed by the sea
remains central to the worldview that has driven fishers’ conservation efforts to nurture this seascape.

The Fisheries Cooperative Associations in Toyama
Prefecture, the Himi City Museum, the Toyama
Prefectural Fisheries Research Institute and the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency are gratefully acknowledged for supplying valuable information.

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Hayashi, S. 1997. “Toyama Bay, Pocket of the Sea ofJapan.” In Toyama Bay: Treasury of Mystery andRomanticism, edited by S. Fujii, Tokyo: Shinko
Shuppansha (In Japanese).
Hayashi, S., and S. Ino. 2005. “Fishery Damage Caused
by Kyucho and Other Factors in the Deep Area of
Toyama Bay.” In Kyucho in the Sea of Japan – For
the Development of Prediction Technology and theReduction of Damage, edited by the Japanese Society ofFisheries Oceanography (In Japanese).
Imamura, A., S. Ishimori, and K. Kawasaki. 1985.
“Toyama Bay II Physics.” In Coastal Oceanographyof Japanese Island, edited by Coastal Oceanography
Research Committee, The Oceanographical Society ofJapan, Tokyo: Tokai University Press (In Japanese).
Masuda, H., K. Amaoka, C. Araga, T. Ueno, and T.
Yoshino. 1988. Picture Book of Japanese Native Fish
Species. Tokyo: Tokai University Press (In Japanese).
Matsuda, Y. 2010. Forestation in the Sea. Tokyo: Midori
Shobo (In Japanese).
Matsuyama, M. 2005. “What is Kyucho?” In Kyucho in
the Sea of Japan: For the Development of Prediction
Technology and the Reduction of Damage, edited
by Japanese Society of Fisheries Oceanography (InJapanese).
Okei, N., J. Okuno, and T. Senju. 2008. “Kyucho Observed
along the Eastern Coast of the Noto Peninsula.” Kaiyo
Monthly 47: 71-78 (In Japanese).

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 4: Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Initiatives in Nanao Bay

Case study

multi-stakeholder dialoGue initiatives innanao bay

4

Anne mcDonald1 and genki terauchi2
1 United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa, 2-1-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa,
920-0962 Japan. E-mail: mcdonald@ias.unu.edu
2 Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC), 5-5 Ushijima shinmachi Toyama City, Toyama, 930-0856 Japan.
E-mail: terauchi@npec.or.jp

ABstrACt
Mainstreaming biodiversity and securing linkages among forests, the countryside, rivers and the sea
are two of the four basic strategies of the National Biodiversity Strategy of Japan 2010. To achieve thisby 2012, the national government has designed an action plan that includes 720 specific measures.
Collective efforts by national and local bodies of government, researchers and civil interest groups
will be needed to develop working solutions to meet the ambitious goals of the national biodiversity
strategy. How these stakeholders work together to complement each other’s strengths as one collective
whole will be key. The Nanao Bay case study explores how this may potentially be achieved. In 2008,
Nanao Bay was selected as one of four pilot sites for the Ministry of the Environment’s Satoumi Creation
Project to design and implement integrated community-based management of coastal marine ecosystems. Although the project was initiated by the central government, inferring a one-way top-bottom
approach to policy initiatives, local initiatives were also already in motion, providing the bottom-up
platform to combine with and facilitate the central government initiatives. Though it is yet premature
to make any conclusive assessments about final or achievable outcomes, this case study is one exampleof how local community efforts, supported by locally-based scientific research activities, can link withnational efforts to mainstream biodiversity.

ovErvIEw oF nAnAo BAy
Nanao Bay is an enclosed-coastal sea located on theeast side of Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture.
Due to its topographical features as a calm natural bay closed off from the ocean, the bay has a long
history as a marine haven for fishers and marine traders. During the Tokugawa Era (1603-1868) it served
as a port for kitamaebune cargo ships transporting
marine products such as herring and kelp and othercommodities from northern Hokkaido through the
Kanmon Straights and Seto Inland Sea to the feudal
capital in Kyoto. Salt produced on the peninsula wasa much sought-after commodity as a preservative forthe marine products transported along this marine
trade route. With limited arable farmland on thepeninsula, holistic approaches to integrated watershed human activities of fishing, farming and forestry
have traditionally been practiced and satoyama traditional socio-ecological production landscapes, andtheir marine counterpart satoumi, have long coexisted.
The future of these traditional landscapes, however, isa growing concern among local policymakers as recent
demographic trends indicate aging and decreasing
population of fishers and farmers in the area.
The enclosed bay area is approximately 183km2(Figure 1). Nanao Bay is divided into north, west
and south bay areas based on depth and other marine
environment characteristics. The average depth of thebay is between 20-30m, and is deepest in the northbay area entrance at 60m. The waters gradually growshallower from the north bay entrance towards the38west bay area where there is an intertidal zone madeup of sand and mud. Fishing activities are moreconcentrated in the north and west bay areas. Fishcatches include greasyback shrimp, mantis shrimp,
blood clam, Japanese cockle and Jedo Venus clam.
The enclosed bay produces many species that do
not inhabit other marine coastal areas in Ishikawa
Prefecture and are considered commercially nonviable due to the low yield potentials and lack ofconsumer demand for the species. Of the commercial
marine species, over 80 per cent of the sea cucumber

FIgurE 1. Map of Nanao Bay.

39

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Human activities in the bay reflect the symbiotic
mutualism of human society’s relationship with thenatural environment. A commonality throughout
human history, human activities have been shapedby the natural terrestrial and marine environmentof the enclosed-coastal sea. As human communities
have developed, the impacts of human activities have
conversely shaped and changed the natural environment, affecting resource availability on both land andsea (Worster et al. 1990). With increased human development, resource use and management conflicts havealso emerged. These very conflicts, in turn, have bothindirectly and directly stimulated public dialogues andintensified the need to explore integrative approaches
to address resource use and management. Satoumibased activities are one such emergence.

Linking fishers observations toscientific research: Exploring
the potential impacts of humanactivities
Degradation of the marine environment, declining
annual fish catches and potential links to land-based
human activities have become the focus of cross-sectoral policy discussions of satoumi-based activities in
the Nanao Bay area since 2008, when the area wasselected as one of four pilot sites for the Ministry of
the Environment (MOEJ) satoumi creation project (seechapter 2, section I). Attention to integrated management needs grew not so much from policy-making
interests initiated by central government top-down

40

5,005

5000
4000
3000

1,920

2000
1000

Box2: Oyster shell nurseries—using aquaculture waste for biodiversity management
Osamu Matsuda, Hiroshima University
Proper disposal of by-products and waste is one important issue amongst the many challenges involved in developing a more sustainable and biodiversity-friendly aquaculture. Oyster cultivation in Japan leaves large amountsof shells as by-products. The cement industry became a major user of what was once left as waste, and other uses
include animal feed ingredient and agricultural soil improvement. A rapidly developing application that could
be promising for satoumi is taking advantage of the highly organism-friendly characteristics of the oyster shell’s
porous surface. When used in artificial reefs, oyster shells are an excellent substrate that allows many organisms
to attach, which in turn attract fish. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of such reefs for fish collection.
Recent developments focus on using these reefs as a habitat for a diversity of small animals whereby aquaculture
waste would be recycled within the marine ecosystem as one tool for local biodiversity management.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

0
1982

Juxtaposed to the fishing activities of the north andwest bay areas is the south bay area where urbanization and industrial development have resulted in land
reclamation and artificial coastal zone construction
activities. Located at the mouth of Misogi River, thesouth bay area serves as a cargo port surrounded byan industrial zone of marine product processing plants
and other small-scale industrial factories, including
a timber basin.

as from bottom-up observations of declining annual
fish catches and monitoring of water quality carriedout in the bay. As is exhibited in Nanao Bay, fishers’
observations supported by scientific data can potentially instigate cross-sectoral policy dialogues on both
local and national levels.

Catch (t)catch of Ishikawa Prefecture comes from Nanao Bay.
Sea cucumber, mozuku (Nemacystus decipiens, an algalike seaweed) and shellfish account for approximately
70 per cent of the annual catch. Pacific oyster farming,
introduced to the bay area in the 1920s, is currently
the largest production area of any coastal community
along the west coast of Japan from northern Hokkaido
to southern Kyushu.

Case Study 4: Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Initiatives in Nanao Bay

Figure 2. Interannual change of oyster catch in
Nanao Bay.

Observations that led to research activities and publicdialogue date back to the late 1980s, when fish catches
started to decline in the bay area. Significant declines
in annual fish catch and oyster farming yields fromthe late 1980s through the 1990s aroused concern
among fishers, field station researchers, and more
recently among fisheries and environmental policymakers (Ishikawa Prefecture 2003). Annual fish
catches prior to decline were 2,000 metric tons. The
current average in recent years is half that, approximately 1,000 tons (Ministry of the Environment
2009). Since the late 1990s, fish catches have stabilized, but oyster yields have continued to decline andthe oyster harvest recorded for 2006 was 1,920 metrictons, a mere 38 per cent of the peak yield in the past
(Figure 2). These declines have led to investigations of
the bay marine environment, specifically water quality and sea bottom environment studies to identify
the causes for the declines in yields.
Comparing fish catches with pH levels revealed thatpH levels in 1990, the year yields drastically declined,
were above 8.5, indicating red tide potentials in thebay (Ocean Policy Research Foundation 2009). Highconcentrations of ammonium nitrogen were recorded
in 1991, possibly resulting from deterioration of thesea bottom environment by anthropogenic eutrophication. Declines in fish catches have been linked tothis and studies show that the fish populations are
decreasing relatively more than that of the actual fish
catch, suggesting that recent decreases of fish catch are
not due to fishing activities alone, but in part due toan overall decrease of productivity in the bay, possibly caused by land-based anthropogenic activities suchas discharge from factories, household sewerage andagricultural chemical run-off.
Studies have indicated sea bottom environment degradation in the west and south bay areas (Taniguchi
and Kato 2008; Ministry of the Environment 2009).
Though not conclusive, fisheries researchers in the area
also suggest environmental degradation may be thecause of declining catches of blood clam; specifically,
despite substantial annual releases of young shells into
the bay to increase stocks, poor survival rates of theyoung shells has been attributed to the deteriorationof the sea bottom environment (Ishikawa Prefecture
Fisheries Research Center 2005).
As researchers increasingly focus on the impact ofanthropogenic factors on the bay’s marine environment, interest in the role of land-use changes
has grown, and research exploring the cause andeffect of land-use changes on marine ecosystems has
gained momentum on the peninsula. A comparison of images observed by the Landsat satellite in
May of 1973 and 2001 shows that land-use change
and degradation in the bay area has taken two polar
paths: overexploitation and underuse, two of thefour threats to biodiversity identified in the National
Biodiversity Strategy of Japan 2010 (Figure 3). Species
and habitat degradation due to overexploitation has
mostly been caused by conversion of agriculturallands into urban lands for residential housing andindustrial activities, land reclamation and otherconstruction activities in coastal areas. Juxtaposed
to degradation caused by excessive human activities
and development is the degradation of inland forestsand upland agricultural lands caused by underuse,under-management and abandonment (JSSA –Hokushinestu Cluster 2010).
Of the land-use changes, urban expansion is mostprominent along the bay’s coastal areas. Approximately
90 per cent of the Nanao Bay shoreline has concrete
revetments, resulting in reduced habitats for plants
and animals, which can reduce marine biodiversity.
More notable, however, is that most of these concrete
revetments are vertically settled. This not only prevents
seaweed and fish species that prefer rocky shores fromgrowing, but also reduces the rate of water exchange
and inhibits the sea-to-land migration of organisms
such as Japanese mitten crab, which inhabit both freshand salt water. Moving beyond these observations

May 27, 1973
Landsat-1/MSS

Water	
Urban	  area	Paddy	
  ﬁeld	Agricultural	
  ﬁeld	Waste	
  land	Golf	
  ﬁeld	Broad	
  leaved	
  forest	
Needle	  leaved	
  forest	

May 17, 2001
Landsat-7/ETM+

Water	
Urban	  area	Paddy	
  ﬁeld	Agricultural	
  ﬁeld	Waste	
  land	Golf	
  ﬁeld	Broad	
  leaved	
  forest	
Needle	  leaved	
  forest	

Figure 3. Comparison of land use change observed byLandsat satellite on May 27, 1973 and May 17, 2001.

41

CBD Technical Series No. 61

towards active measures to regenerate marine life inthese human-made artificial environments, as has been
done in Tokyo Bay on a minimal scale for example(see Tokyo Bay case study), has yet to be exploredon the bay.
Land-use change and ridge-to-reef correlations offorest management and marine environment has
been the focus of studies on the peninsula as part ofthe ongoing work of the United Nations University
Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) led
satoyama satoumi ecosystem assessment work by
the Hokushinetsu Cluster working group. This workbuilds on studies by Ishikawa Prefecture’s Fishing
Environment Conservation Policy paper (2003) thatreported a correlation between the area of broadleaved forests and catches of fish that inhabit in the bay,
including mozuku, sea cucumber and striped mullet.
The results suggested that diminishing fish catchesfrom the 1970s to 2002 is related to the reduced areaof broad-leaved forests (Ishikawa Prefecture 2003).
This indicates a potential link between land and coastal
marine environmental degradation of satoyama-typelandscape forest management where diverse species aremaintained under a more holistic integrative approachakin to contemporary ecosystem-based management
approaches caused by monoculture plantation forest
management practices.
Land-use change studies in the bay tend to focus on
land-based human activities, implying a linear flowof impacts. Although quantitative analysis as yet islimited, impacts of changing human activities on landand sea have been mutual. Specifically, on the bay,land-based activities have been influenced by technological innovations in the fishing industry. Up until
the 1960s, timber self-sufficiency rates were about 70
per cent and locally produced timber was used not
only for housing needs but to build fishing boats andfishing equipment. In Nanao Bay, many fishers werealso foresters and farmers. Distinct to the bay area
was marukibune, a dugout boat used for fishing on thecalm bay waters and for transporting agricultural crops
through the canals of coastal communities. Bamboo
forest management also benefited from fishing activities as locally grown mosou bamboo was used to makethe oyster rafts for oyster farming. The floats for nets
were also made from locally produced paulownia orvariant species of Japanese cypress (Nanao City 2003).
These interconnected forester-farmer-fisher activities on the bay began to change as Japan entered therapid economic growth period of the 1960s. With rapid

42

Case Study 4: Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Initiatives in Nanao Bay

development came the mechanization of boats andthe introduction of FRP and plastic materials for boat
making and fishing equipment, resulting in the declineof timber demand driven by local fishing activities andintegrated land-to-sea resource use and management
practices on the peninsula.
More exploratory studies on land-use change impacts
and the inter-linkages of human activities on terrestrial
and marine environments have been recommended
by researchers to policymakers at meetings of theprefectural government’s committee for Satoyama
Satoumi Vision Planning and Biodiversity Strategy(Ishikawa Prefecture 2010). Further, agricultural
practices in Ishikawa Prefecture are currently being
reviewed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries’ Hokuriku regional policy office as part of
the national government’s evaluation of the agricultural lands, water and environmental conservation
management program. Though yet premature topreclude concrete effective results from these initiatives, integrated approaches to integrated watershedstudies and exploratory policy discussions in linking
forestry, agriculture and fishery practices, and the policies that support them, are underway.

Bridging differences: Emerging
community-based partnerships
and multi-stakeholder dialogue
initiatives
As societies change and evolve, so do their relationships with nature. From hunter-gatherer based
communities where animism is practiced and taboos
are often the mechanisms that guide resource use andmitigate conflicts that arise within the community,
to industrialized communities where litigation andgovernment legislation guide and regulate people’s
relationship with nature, nature views in our everincreasing global world are a continually evolving
multilayered mosaic (Hughes 2009). Nanao Bay
provides an interesting illustration of how these different world views can coexist.
Indigenous animism, feudal era based hereditaryfishing rights and resource use practices, along with
contemporary regulations and laws influenced byWestern thought, coexist and influence nature views,
resource use rights and perspectives. As human activities in the bay area have evolved from fisher-farmer
based communities to an increasingly industrialized

urban society, lifestyles have changed. With thesechanges, homogeneity of traditional nature views havebecome fractured and diversified, resulting in differing, sometimes competing, views of human society’s
relationship with nature and rights regarding its use.
In the case of Nanao Bay, this has arisen in the formof marine resource use conflicts among fisheries andtourist-driven interests.
Fishing and tourism have co-existed in Nanao Bay
since the thirteenth century. Marine and land travellers
visited the medicinal natural hot springs of Wakura
Onsen for relaxation and trekked through mountain and coastal footpaths on religious pilgrimages to
Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. As society haschanged, so have the trends of tourism in the bay area.
Over the last decade, cultural tourism and eco-tourism have grown (Nanao City 2009). Eco-tours include
outdoor mountain trekking, farming and forestry
education experiences in traditional satoyama socioecological production landscapes, and more recently,
marine outdoor activities such as diving and dolphin
watching, the latter of which is at the centre of debate
among tourist and fisher interests in the bay.
As in other regions in Japan, recreational marine
sports and fisher relations have often been tenuous
as spatial planning and regulations of bay use havetraditionally placed fishers’ use rights above others.
Divers negotiate with the local fisher cooperative associations to gain access to diving spots on the bay.
Consensual agreement through discussion between
diving and fisher interests was until recently rather
conflict free, as end use interests did not compete.
From 2001, when Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphinsmigrated into the bay area and settled, this has gradually changed. There are no traditional practices ofdolphin hunting in the bay, thus hunting versus
conservation protection is not an issue. What iscontentious, however, is that diver and tourist interests argue for conservation regulation needs to protect
the dolphins’ habitat, while fishers are concerned
about the potential impacts of the dolphins—specifically, impacts on already declining fish stocks of anincreasing settled population.
In an effort to resolve these issues, the Nanao Bay
Research Group, a multi-stakeholder group made up
of a Nanao city-NPO citizen’s group, local government officials, researchers, tourist interests, divers
and fishers was established in July 2004 (Shikida
and Moriyama 2005). This research group facilitates

discussion between various stakeholders that previously had limited interactions with each other. The
group functions as a coordinating body of ocean users
by establishing rules for diving and dolphin watching.
As dolphin watching tour numbers increase, however,fishers whose fishing grounds fall in the areas inhabited by the dolphins are increasingly concerned about
the potential impacts on their fishing activities. Bothinterest groups have called for the need to develop a
new management structure and regulations for thegrowing tourism activities.
Resource use conflict discussions, growing concern
over declining fish stocks and degradation of the bay
environment have resulted in a growing collective
awareness among community leaders of the needfor integrated approaches to explore working solutions for marine resource use, conservation andmanagement issues in the bay. Awareness of the issues
supported by sound scientific studies and generating
the civil will to work together to find working solutions is a step Nanao Bay community has made. The
next step of mitigating competing interests under
one overarching body did not easily take form until
MOEJ initiated the Satoumi Creation Project in 2008(see Chapter 2).
Nanao Bay became one of four pilot sites selected by
MOEJ in 2008 as a model where integrated river basin
activities could be explored for a two-year period toprovide scientific and socio-economic data on issues
including local government policy. The project was
designed to develop satoumi activities that would go
beyond the enclosed coastal waters linking mountain and agricultural lands along waterways flowing
into the bay. Selection by the national government
as one of four pilot sites (the following year anothertwo pilot sites were added) provided the impetus,
as well as facilitated local efforts to bring various
stakeholders together. A steering committee wasestablished at the prefectural environmental division
office and members included researchers, Nanao Bay
Research Group representatives, and fisher cooperative association representatives. To respond to national
government initiatives of cross-sectoral approaches
to satoumi-based activities, government division
representation included the environment division;
fisheries section of agriculture, forestry and fisheries
division; and land, infrastructure, transport and tourism division from both local municipal government
bodies and the prefectural government (Ministry of
the Environment 2009).

43CBD Technical Series No. 61

Allowing for local community self-initiative is a
key element of MOEJ’s Satoumi Creation Project,perhaps signalling a new direction in policy development and implementation in a country where
central government is often the primary guiding
force in policy design and implementation at boththe national and local government level. Although
the three-year project is now in its final year, it is still
premature to make any conclusive assessments, but
by allowing for local initiative in designing activities, the national government has contributed to local
empowerment potentials. Data collection, monitoring activities, social-science based interviews
with the different interest groups on the bay andmeetings to discuss the research activities were arequirement of the project. How each pilot site met
the requirements was left to its discretion. In Nanao
Bay, meetings to discuss and design the research andmonitoring related activities were convened in thelocal bay community. Public outreach activities wereanother requirement, both within site communities and among pilot sites. Local workshops andforums along with visual and written communication materials describing the satoumi concept andrelated activities were developed by the local steering committee, while inter-pilot site meetings andjoint forums were organized by MOEJ. This multiscale approach to public outreach has benefited allpartners by facilitating exchange of informationand network building among pilot sites, increasing
dialogue between national government and local
government bodies, and creating public platforms toengage both bay community members and civil society in satoumi-based activity discussions (Ministryof the Environment 2010).

Conclusion and future prospects
Though further analysis is required, it can be argued
in the case of Nanao Bay that mutual aims working
in the same direction have been key to linking central
government initiatives related to satoumi-based activities to local community efforts. Moreover, the two
are interdependent; substance and effectiveness of
one depend on the other. National initiatives often
evolve from locally voiced and/or perceived local
needs. The effectiveness, however, of national government initiatives is often dependant on local activities
already in motion and the capacities of communities
to become active and ideally equal partners in thenational initiatives.

44

Case Study 4: Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Initiatives in Nanao Bay

In the case of Nanao Bay, central government initiatives for satoumi-based activities as part of efforts
to mainstream biodiversity came at a time whencommunity awareness of growing coastal marine
environmental issues was supported by sound scientific studies. The scientific backing to fisher andother interest group observations of potential degradation and ensuing impacts was a key element, as itprovided the impetus for local initiatives. Not only
were research findings key to stakeholder mobilization,
but researcher interaction with the various interest
groups, from fishers to tourist groups to the crosssectoral local government offices, and participationin the multi-stakeholder local dialogues has also been
instrumental in strengthening local initiatives andproviding the scientific validity needed to effectively
link local efforts to national initiatives.
National and locally intertwined initiatives facilitatedby multi-stakeholder dialogues have been successful
thus far in engaging the differing resource user interestsin the bay. Under the guidance of the Satoumi Creation
Project steering committee the differing issues havebeen discussed and debated in the same forum, thus
facilitating an integrated approach to policy discussions. Research and policy needs have been identified
by the steering committee and presented to both thelocal and national government offices. Implementationof integrated policy is the next challenge. Scientificactivities once again will be key in meeting this nextchallenge; specifically, marine spatial planning designed
from ecosystem based management approaches is yet
only a final aim and will require the collaborative
efforts of scientific, civil and political will to achieve.

Ministry of the Environment. 2010. “Satoumi Creation
Supporting Project of 2009.” Report on Satoumi
Creation Activities, Nanao Bay Satoumi Creation
Project.
Nanao City. 2003. “History of Nanao City.” New Edition
13 Folklore Compilation.
Nanao City. 2009. “The 1st Stage Nanao City
Comprehensive Plan 2009-2018.”
Ocean Policy Research Foundation. 2009. “Report of the
Health Examination for Enclosed Sea Area in Japan.”
Examination of 71 Enclosed Sea Areas. 2008.
Shikida, A., and N. Moriyama. 2005. “Formulation
Process of Local Coastal Management: Case Studyof Adjustments with Diving in Nanao City, Ishikawa
Prefecture.” In Journal of Japanese Association of
Coastal Studies 2005 Collection of Lecture Summaries,224-27.
Taniguchi, M., and M. Kato. 2008. “Benthic Foraminiferal
Assemblages from Nanao Bay, Ishikawa, Japan – Basic
Study of Vertical Changes of Faunas.” Annals of the
Research Institute of the Japan Sea Region 39: 9-16.
Worster, D., et al. 1990. “A Roundtable: Environmental
History.” Journal of American History 74 (4):1087-1147.

References
Hughes, J.D. 2009. An Environmental History of the World:
Humankind’s Changing Role in the Community of Life.
London: Routledge.
Ishikawa Prefecture. 2003. “Ishikawa Prefecture Fishing
Ground Conservation Policy.”
Ishikawa Prefecture Fisheries Research Center. 2005.
Fisheries Research Center News Letter No. 35.
Japan Satoyama Satoumi Assessment (JSSA) –Hokushinetsu Cluster. 2010. Satoyama and Satoumi:
Socio-ecological Production Landscapes in Japan– Experiences and Lessons from Hokushinetsu
Cluster –. Tokyo: United Nations University (Japanesepublication).
Ministry of the Environment. 2009. “Satoumi Creation
Supporting Project of 2008.” Report on Satoumi
Creation Activities, Nanao Bay Satoumi Creation
Project.

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 5: The Ama-San of Hegura Island: Carrying on the Traditions of Her Ancestors

Case study

the ama-san oF heGura island: CarryinG
on the traditions oF her anCestors— over 1,400 years oF Community-based
resourCe manaGement

5

Anne mcDonald
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa, 2-1-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa,
920-0962 Japan. Email: mcdonald@unu.ias.edu

ABstrACt
The ama, literally “sea-women”, have for centuries made a livelihood of diving to collect shellfish. On
Hegura Island, long, daily immersions in the ocean since generations have over time built coastal
communities in which a uniquely intimate relationship with the sea is a key part of the cultural identity, providing a distinctive case of the interaction of a culture with its coastal ecosystem. Like manyother female divers communities, the ama of Hegura are characterised by strong, women-led hereditarycollectivism. Community-level collective structures regulate the use of the commonly owned coastal
resources, making management decisions including on the introduction of new technology. An intriguing
example is the collective decision to not introduce SCUBA diving technology, which seems impossible
to make sense of from the viewpoint of economic efficacy alone. Cultural identity and a non-utilitarian view of their ecosystem were considered in the collective deliberations, and took precedence overshort-term gains in time or financial efficacy. Yet in the long run, the indications are that such decisions
led to better outcomes socially, environmentally, and even economically, as it appears the Hegura ama
community has a lower debt ration than most other fishers communities – although further researchis needed to quantify this. It should be clarified that the community is far from systematically rejecting
modernity, as illustrated in the cooperation with scientists to address new challenges such as climatechange impacts. On the contrary, this community’s particular path to conciliate tradition and modernity
is a valuable example that compels more research on its effective use of cultural identity and traditional
knowledge for sustainability in a modern context.

ovErvIEw AnD hIstorICAl ContExt oF
hEgurA IslAnD
Over 6,850 islands make up the Japanese Archipelago,
stretching approximately 3,000 km through northerntemperate to subtropical zones along the Eurasiancontinent. Of these islands, 6,847 are designated asremote islands whose governance laws differ fromthose of the main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido,
Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. Only 258 of theseremote islands are currently inhabited (MLIT 2010).
Hegura Island is just one of the 258 inhabited
remote islands. With a land area of 1.04 km2 and acircumference of 5 km, it is located 50 km offshore
from mainland Honshu on the Noto Peninsula,
Ishikawa Prefecture, and is the northernmost habitat for the hermatypic stony coral colony, made up of
Rhizapsammia minuta mutuensis, Culicia japonica
tenuisepes, Oulastrea crsipata and other reef-building
coral (Hokkoku Shimbun 2010). The island is locatedat the intersection of the Tsushima Warm Current—asubstream of the Kuroshio Warm Current from the
Pacific—and Oyashio Current—a cold ocean current
from the northern Pacific Ocean—contributing to theclimatic and marine biodiversity of the area (Group for
Research of Natural Environment in Hegurajima andNanatsujima Islands 2011). Plants from both southernand northern regions coexist on this island, creating a unique vegetation landscape not observed on46

the mainland just 50 km away (Kanazawa University
and Hokkoku Shimbun Natural Environment
Research Team 1961; Group for Research of Natural
Environment in Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands2011). An estimated 300 migratory birds, includingrare birds such as the meadow bunting and black
headed bunting, pass through Hegura Island annually (Shikida 1996).
Another migrant to the island are the ama-san, women
free divers. Referred to as sea gypsies, both in classicalliterature dating back over 1,300 years and in historicalaccounts of nomadic marine lifestyles referred to as
ama-aruki (literally meaning “women divers’ walking”,
it refers to the nomadic movement of ama divers fromisland to island as they harvested abalone and laver),ethno-historical theories suggest that over 1,500 years
ago the ama divers travelled with the currents fromthe Korean peninsula across to southern Japan. From
there, they split into two distinct nomadic communities. One group travelled across to the Pacific Ocean
coastline; the other, carried by the Tsushima Warm
Current, moved northwards along the Japan Sea coastline, one break-off group eventually reaching Noto
Peninsula and Hegura Island (Tanabe 2007; Hokkoku
Shimbun 1986). According to historical annals of the
feudal Tokugawa Era (1603-1868), the ama divers’
seasonal migration to Hegura from summer throughthe early autumn months to harvest abalone and ama
village settlement on the mainland were granted offi-

47

CBD Technical Series No. 61

cial recognition in 1649 by the Kaga domain, thus
legally recognizing their exclusive rights to harvest
marine resources on the coastal waters of the mainland peninsula and Hegura Island (Hokkoku Shimbun
1986). Both the seasonal migration and exclusive rights
are maintained today.
During the Tokugawa Era (1603-1868), Japan implemented a policy of seclusion, and for almost threecenturies natural resources were basically limited tothose available domestically. The Tokugawa regime
enacted resource use laws and initiated scientific studies on soil, silviculture, crop rotation, water and othernatural resources as part of integrative policies aimed
at sustainable resource use and management of limited
domestic resources (Totman 1989; McDonald 2005;
Richards 2003). Detailed recordings of resource use
and management were compiled during this era ofself-imposed seclusion. Among these is a book from1841 that includes maps of ama diving activities andmarine resource management throughout the Japanesearchipelago, as the abalone they harvested was highly
valued (Ohkita 1989; Tanabe 2007). Despite the end of
feudalism and the abolition of the socio-political andlegal systems that ruled resource access and management, the ama divers of Hegura Island continued as
their sea gypsy ancestors, carrying on the traditionsof hereditary collectivism.

Carrying on the traditions of herancestors: Hereditary collectivism
and community-based resource
management
Hereditary fishing rights are integral to resource
management and the social structure of all fishingcommunities in Japan (see chapter 1, section III:
“Satoumi and institutional characteristics of Japanese
coastal fishery management”). What is unique amongst
the Hegura Island ama divers and other female ama
diver communities in Japan is the matriarchal foundations of those rights.
Where patriarchy governs, the fishing rights will
dictate not only the fishing grounds and fishingseasons, but also species and/or fishing methods foreach patriarchal household. Social stratification often
emerges from these fishing rights, as certain commercial species and/or fishing methods will generate moreincome than others, thus resulting in income disparities and unspoken—though visible—social strata

48

Case Study 5: The Ama-San of Hegura Island: Carrying on the Traditions of Her Ancestors

in any given community. Target species, harvesting
grounds and seasons are collectively shared, thus
income disparities amongst ama divers are driven byindividual diving skills (McDonald 2008). Another
differentiation is that in patriarchal fishing communities women are often invisible non-wage laborers
unaccounted for in official labor statistics, whereas
in female ama diver communities, women are often
the primary wage earners (McDonald 1995-2008;
McDonald 2006).
Empowerment of women in food production activities is viewed by many as critical to mainstreaming
biodiversity and achieving equitable resource access.
The Gender Action Plan under the Convention on
Biological Diversity emphasizes the importance ofgender equality amongst men and women, stating thatit “has the cumulative effect of improved biodiversity
management and protection and poverty alleviation
for communities”. Current research on female ama
diver resource management approaches and theirpotential in mainstreaming biodiversity is limited inJapan (Kanazawa University and Hokkoku Shimbun
Natural Environment Research Team 1961; Maraini
1989; Group for Research of Natural Environmentin Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands 2011), but
further research and examination could potentiallyassist in shedding light on gender differences and similarities in resource management perspectives, which inturn could potentially contribute to more integrativeand holistic gender-neutral biodiversity management
practices in coastal communities.
Maintaining hereditary ama diving rights is dependent on financial payments. Annual charges of 8,000
Japanese yen are applied to all households who wish
to maintain their claim to their hereditary rights.
Regardless of whether or not a member actively divesin a given year, all must pay this fee to their collectively run ama community associations. Failure to
pay their annual fee may result in the loss of rights tothat household. There are currently 364 households
registered, making this the second-largest female ama
diver population in Japan next to the Mie Prefecture,
famous for pearl diving in the Ago Bay area (see chapter 7, section II). Of those registered in 2010, there are
179 active individuals, ranging in age from 20 to 93.
As with all fishing communities in Japan where annual
fishing licenses ensure active use of a household’s fishing rights for that given year, Hegura Island ama divers
must pay annual fishing (harvesting) license fees to theama community association in order to legally enterBox 3: Agehama-style salt making traditionsin Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture
Laura Cocora and Anne McDonald, United Nations University
Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa
For centuries, salt production from seawater has been an
important marine resource used in the Noto Peninsula, astrip of land that juts out into the sea from the West Coast ofJapan’s main island, Honshu. Traditional salt making in Notois reflective of how resource use traditions are shaped by the
combined effects of local ecological and socio-cultural conditions. It is also representative of productive humanactivities that rely on ecosystem services of both satoumi and satoyama landscapes, having developed aspects ofintegrated resource management that links coastal and inland human activities. The salt production techniquepractised in Noto for more than five centuries is known as the “agehama style”. It relies on human power to draw
and transport water from the ocean and then spread it uniformly on banked sand terraces, where it evaporates,
leaving a highly saline brine that is then boiled to salt crystals using wood from the nearby satoyama forest as fuel.
The socio-cultural context played a decisive role in the development of the salt manufacturing industry in Noto,
where the rice-based tax system was prevalent during the Edo Period (1603-1868) and was difficult to implement
due to the scarcity of cultivable land. Instead, local ruling authorities used salt as a substitute for tax payments,
converting salt production into an important subsistence basis. When the salt tax system was abolished at theend of the feudal era and new policies were introduced, traditional salt manufacturing declined.
In recent years, renewed interest in the traditional knowledge associated with agehama-style salt production is oneof the reasons for the revalorization of old practices. In particular, elements of integrated management of sea andland resources are attracting attention for their potential contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity. In the past, salt makers owned forest areas that they managed for a sustainable supply of fuel wood.
The highly valued character of wood is illustrated by the two-stage manufacturing method and the kiln housestructure, which have been devised to minimize fuel use. Through their forest management activities, salt makers
maintained a sunlit woodland environment that provided habitats for a rich biodiversity. They also planted andlooked after various tree species with different burning properties. Such linkages between terrestrial and marine
resource management are currently being explored for the value they might add to salt making and other traditional industries, as a step towards the design of integrated policies for sustainable rural development in Ishikawa.
For more information on agehama-style salt making, please refer to the related UNU Media Centre video brief
Salt of life—Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom of Satoumi (http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/preserving-japans-seasalt-making-tradition/) and the accompanying booklet Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom of Satoyama/Satoumi,
produced as part of a joint research project between the Ishikawa Prefectural Government, Kanazawa University
and United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa.

the community designated harvesting waters. For the
140 ama divers under 70 years of age, the fee is 20,000
Japanese yen. For the 39 ama divers over 70 years ofage, the fee is 10,000 Japanese yen (McDonald 20082010; JSSA – Hokushinestu Cluster 2010).
Annual harvesting license fees are discussed anddecided by the collective ama community, not bygovernment regulatory bodies, as is common practicein Japan (see chapter 2, section I). In 2009, discussions were held regarding the growing concern overdecreasing stocks. The collective whole agreed to raise
the annual harvesting licensing fee by 5,000 yen perperson in order to increase collective monies used
for resource management. Approximately 2 million
Japanese yen from the combined fees are currently
used for resource regeneration activities, specifically,
the purchase and release of abalone and turban shellseedlings (McDonald 2010).
Fees are but one item decided by the collective whole.
Another custom, which is passed down from ancestors

49

CBD Technical Series No. 61

as an ama diver tradition and obligation, dictates thatall decisions about harvesting activities are discussed—
sometimes heatedly debated—but ultimately decided
by the collective whole (McDonald 2008). Harvestingseasons, harvesting grounds, allowable size of harvested
species, and community-implemented no-take zones
are decided collectively and regulated by the ama
community association. Daily harvest time regulations for each species are also discussed and decided.
In 2007, growing concern about decreasing stocks ofabalone and turban shell, despite the implementationof no-take zones and regeneration efforts, led to discussions about regulating harvesting activities by imposing
limits on harvesting times. After a series of discussions,
all agreed to decrease harvesting times by half, fromeight to four hours (JSSA – Hokushinestu Cluster 2010).
Though interviews were conducted with less than 25
per cent of the ama divers in Hegura, when asked why
they were willing to decrease their harvesting times
and adhere to other harvesting and resource management regulations, an obligation to her ancestors topass on viable traditions to future generations and anunderstanding that sustainability of marine resources
is interlinked with their own viability and very existence were noted as primary reasons for adhering to thecollectively reached decisions (McDonald 2008-2010).
Reviewing the responses of ama divers interviewed,
one cannot help but ponder the weight of consciousness of traditional obligation over scientific reasoning
as a motivating factor in guiding resource management
decisions amongst the female ama divers of Hegura.

Cultural identity as a lever insustainability
Attitudes, beliefs and values towards nature influence
how a given society interacts with and uses nature.
How humans use nature results in both environmental
and human consequences, often causing irreversible
changes in the relationship humans have with nature.
The adoption and application of technological innovation is one example of human use of nature, thepotential socio-economic benefits of which are often
perceived as outweighing the consequences (Hughes
2001; McNeill 2000; Merchant 2002).
Debates on the trade-offs of technological adoption
have been a part of female ama diver communities
since the late 1800s, when goggles were first introduced. Final decisions resulting from debate on

50

Case Study 5: The Ama-San of Hegura Island: Carrying on the Traditions of Her Ancestors

whether or not to adopt this practice were made by
the collective whole (Nakada 1987; Tanabe 2007).
Written records detail the debates in southern Japan,
where increased visibility underwater was perceived
as a potential danger to overharvesting. Thus, goggles
were initially prohibited, then limited to one set ofgoggles per boat to be shared among five to seven
divers. By the early 1920s, all ama diver communities,
including Hegura, had adopted goggles (Tanabe 2007).
The next technological innovation to be introduced
was wetsuits. As with the goggles, debate ensued. Until
wetsuits were introduced in the mid-1960s, ama divers
harvested without any body protection and would haveto frequently surface to warm themselves around thestoves on the boats being manned by their husbands
and fathers. Because a wetsuit allowed a person todive longer, thus enabling them to harvest more per
daily dive, wetsuits on Hegura were initially prohibited, then allowed on the condition that a full suit
was not worn and two women shared a suit so thatthey would only be half covered. By the mid-1970s,
all wore full suits. Flippers followed wetsuits in thetechnology adoption debates. Diving depths could bealtered by 10 to 15 metres, resulting in an increase intotal harvest area and yields. As with the goggles andwetsuits, concern over the potential risks the technology could have on availability of resources resulted
in conditional adoption. By the late 1970s, all were
equipped with goggles, full wetsuit and flippers, withunlimited use by all (JSSA – Hokushinestu Cluster
2010; McDonald 2008-2010).
Cautious adoption of new technologies gradually led
to full adoption amongst the female ama divers of
Hegura. One wonders if the end result of full adoption negates the community deliberations on potential
trade-offs of adoption and caution about risks to overharvesting. Caution about the impacts of technology
on natural resources did not develop to discussions
on how to regulate people’s use of the technology(McDonald 2008). And yet, caution overruled in thenext debate. This time the collective whole said noto the adoption of oxygen tanks. Perhaps this grewout of an unconscious recognition of their inability
to control the technology they adopt. Or perhaps, assome of the elders interviewed commented, oxygentanks would end their existence as free divers. Naturallung capacity and instinct are what defines their very
identity and existence, many commented. Adopting an
oxygen tank would end over 1,000 years of the heritage that defines them (McDonald 2008-2010).

Trade-off discussions exploring short- and long-termsocio-economic benefits are an undercurrent of thecautious technological adoption debates among ama
divers. Though further research is required, one may
argue that the ama divers’ collective choice and control
of technological adoption is one reason for their fishing practices remaining more labour-intensive and lesscapital-intensive compared to many other fisheries
in this region in Japan (McDonald 1995-2008, 20082010). Although quantifiable data is required, thisseems to have led to smaller debt ratios than in otherfishing communities, where, in Japan as in the rest of
the world, fishers’ debt is often high and may contribute to pressure towards unsustainable fishing practices.
Cultural identity as a driving factor in resource
management is not unique to the female ama divers
and has been recorded in the writing of many ethnobiologists (Roué 2006). Cultural identity of the female
ama divers as a leverage to sustainable resource
management requires further exploration. The socialand environmental outcomes of their collective deliberations on the trade-offs of technological innovation
are instructive. A key question is how this experience could be used on a larger scale to mainstream aform of community-based management that encourages, if not enforces, trade-off discussions prior to theadoption of new technologies, which in turn could
potentially have an impact on resource use and biodiversity conservation.

Limits of her ancestors’ teachings:
Directing questions to scientists
The ama community of Hegura also provides us with
an illustration of how traditional knowledge can be
combined with modern science. Information about
individual harvesting grounds within the collectively
designated grounds are family secrets transmitted frommother to daughter; it is currently locked up in a safe
at the ama association on handwritten maps. These
describe marine life and identifying characteristics ofthe marine habitat in the harvesting ground; information on the location of marine life, currents, watertemperatures and depths are among the knowledge
passed down through the generations (McDonald
2008-2010).
Yet this knowledge is no longer sufficient, nor always
reliable. The ocean their ancestors knew is no longer
the ocean they need to know in order to continue

as ama divers. It is a changing one, and to be able toadequately respond and adapt to these changes, theteachings of the ancestors have limitations (Group for
Research of Natural Environment in Hegurajima andNanatsujima Islands 2011; McDonald 2008-2010).
Climate change and its potential impacts on marine
biodiversity in their harvesting grounds is a question
the ama divers have begun discussing, first among
themselves, then recently with researchers as they
search for information on a changing environment.
To answer some of these questions about changing
environments on both land and in the sea, the Groupfor Research of Natural Environment in Hegurajima
and Nanatsujima Islands spent from 2008 to 2010
carrying out field studies. Results showed surface
air temperatures and marine temperatures haveincreased. The average temperature for the month ofApril between 1967 and 1984, the wakame (Undaria
pinnatifida) and mekabu harvesting season on theisland for the ama divers, was 10.5°C. In 2009, it was
12.7°C (Group for Research of Natural Environmentin Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands 2011). Similar
trends have been recorded for the sea. Between 1909
and 2009, recorded ocean temperatures around
Hegura Islands rose by 1.2°C; the global average forthe same time period was 0.5°C (Group for Research of
Natural Environment in Hegurajima and Nanatsujima
Islands 2011).
With warming, scientists have observed what
they believe are signs of migration of southern
species northwards (Group for Research of Natural
Environment in Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands2011). On land, meadow buntings native to the southern islands of Kagoshima and Okinawa have migrated
north to Hegura Island, and southern insects andtheir habitats, including Cercion sexlineatum andPreneopogon catenalis, have been observed (Groupfor Research of Natural Environment in Hegurajima
and Nanatsujima Islands 2011). Marine life migrations have also been observed, and of 25 shellfish
species investigated, seven were found that normally
inhabit waters further south (Group for Research of
Natural Environment in Hegurajima and Nanatsujima
Islands 2011). Though yet premature to draw definitive links between warming and changes in marine
biota around Hegura Island, scientists’ findings havevalidated some of the ama divers’ observations of achanging environment. Though interactive dialogue
between ama diver community leaders and scientists has been a positive step forward, there remain51

CBD Technical Series No. 61

some challenges in integrating local ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge for effective resource
management.
Warming temperatures, degradation of seagrass beds,
declines not only in the target species abalone andturban shell but other marine life, and the increased
frequency in appearance in their waters of marine life
typical of waters further south have been observed byama divers, particularly among those over 50 years
old (Group for Research of Natural Environment in
Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands 2011; McDonald
2008-2010). As observations of change increase, sodoes concern about community resilience and theirability to adapt to change. Efforts to regenerate marine
resources have thus far been negligible (McDonald
2008-2010). Ocean desertification is seen by ama
divers as a possible reason for the lack of success intheir regeneration efforts, which include releasing
seeds, enforcing no-take zones and reduced diving
times (Group for Research of Natural Environment in
Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands 2011). Some ofthe elder ama divers interviewed commented, “Has themarine environment changed so much that it no longer
can sustain marine life?” (McDonald 2008-2010).

Conclusion
Though further analysis is required, it can be argued
in the case of Hegura Island that community-based
resource management, with its roots in hereditaryfishing rights, contributes to mainstreaming biodiversity conservation. It is clear that the collective
community has a keen sense of the importance ofresource management in order to ensure sustainability and biodiversity conservation. Collective will andan understanding that resource management is something that must first come from within the community,
combined with empowerment, self-initiative and astrong consciousness of community responsibility ensure the ongoing viability of one’s community,
based on sustainable resource management. The ama
divers of Hegura, though by no means presenting aperfect picture, do embody the strengths of community-based resource management, driven by a strong
sense of cultural identity and inclusive egalitarian decision-making, where trade-offs are debated and final
decisions are made by the collective whole.
The science of resource use and biodiversity conservation is given much attention by policymakers and52

Case Study 5: The Ama-San of Hegura Island: Carrying on the Traditions of Her Ancestors

yet factors driving human behavior are often overlooked. Cultural identity as a driving factor in resource
management is something to be learnt, or at leastconsidered, from this case study. There are many
aspects which compel further exploration regarding
the interrelation of the ama divers’ cultural identity
and the sustainable management of the resources.
One promising topic is their collective deliberationof benefits and trade-offs prior to the adaption of newtechnology, and how this may be used for decisionmaking in larger management frameworks.
A strong sense of cultural identity, hereditary-based
resource access and use rights as the foundations ofcommunity-based management can potentially run
the risk of a community distancing themselves fromand being distanced by the mainstream community
in any given country. This can ultimately lead to theweakening of that community when the answers tosustainable resource use management cannot be foundfrom within. Community viability requires communities to be able to reach beyond the borders of theircommunities to work with non-community members
to find working solutions to community challenges.
That the ama divers of Hegura Island have welcomedscientists into their community is a sign of their potential strength in eventually finding answers to thequestions of how to adapt to a changing environmentand how to develop resource management practices
that their ancestors’ teachings do not provide themwith, including the tools to answer these modern-day
challenges. The ama divers teach us that community
resilience that potentially leads to successful biodiversity conservation, and the continuing viability of thecommunity itself and the resources it depends on tosurvive is built on the strong foundations passed downfrom one’s ancestors, but strengthened by a community’s ability to reach beyond its traditions.

References
Group for Research of Natural Environment in
Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands, ed. 2011.
Natural Environment in Hegurajima and Nanatsujima
Islands off Noto Peninsura, Central Japan. Kanazawa:
Group for Research of Natural Enviornment in
Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands & The Hokkoku
Shimbun (Japanese publication).
Hokkoku Shimbun, ed.1986. People in Hegura Island,
Noto [Noto Hegura no umibito]. Kanazawa: Hokkoku
Newspaper Publications (Japanese publication).
Hokkoku Shimbun, ed. 2010. Natural Science Field
Research Findings of Nanatsu and Hegura Island[Hegurajima Nanatsujima kara no tegami]. Kanazawa:
Group for Research of Natural Environment in
Hegurajima and Nanatsujima Islands & The Hokkoku
Shimbun (Japanese publication).
Hughes, J. D. 2001. An Environmental History of theWorld: Humankind’s Changing Role in the Communityof Life (Routledge Studies in Physical Geography andEnvironment. London: Routledge.
Hughes, J.D. 2006. What is Environmental History?
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Japan Satoyama Satoumi Assessment (JSSA) –Hokushinetsu Cluster. 2010. Satoyama and Satoumi:
Socio-ecological Production Landscapes in Japan –Experiences and Lessons from Hokushinetsu Cluster–. Tokyo: United Nations University (Japanesepublication).

Richards, J.F. 2003. The Unending Frontier: Environmental
History of the Early Modern World. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Roué, M., ed. 2006. Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity(International Social Science Journal Special Issue 187).
Blackwell publishing and UNESCO.
Shikida, A. 1996. “A study of bird watchers at
Hegurajima.” Journal of tourism research 29: 55-65(Japanese publication).
Tanabe, S. 2007. Ama Divers of Japan. Tokyo: Hosei
University Press (Japanese publication).
Totman, C.D. 1989. The Green Archipelago: Forestry inPreindustrial Japan. Berkeley: University of California
Press.

Kanazawa University and Hokkoku Shimbun Natural
Environment Research Team. 1961. Nanatsu andHegura Island Natural Science Study [Hegurajima
Nanatsujima: Koto no Sizen wo Tazunete]. Kanazawa:
Hokkoku Newspaper Publications (Japanesepublication).
Maraini, F. 1989. The Female Ama Divers of HeguraIsland. Tokyo: Mirai Publishing Company (Japanesepublication).
McDonald, A. 1995-2008. Field notes from interviews
with fisher communities between 1995-2008 fromtravels to 80 per cent of coastal communities on thefour major islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku andFukuoka.
McDonald, A. 2005. Introduction to Environmental
History. Tokyo: Shimizukobundo Publishing Company(Japanese publication).
McDonald, A. 2006. “Umibito Jambalaya 3—Womenin Japanese Coastal Communities.” Ethnology
Journal [Kikan Minzokugaku] 116: 85-89 (Japanesepublication).
McDonald, A. 2008. “Umibito Jambalaya 13—Living Day
by Day Beneath the Ocean’s Surface: Female Ama
Divers of Hegura Island.” Ethnology Journal [Kikan
Minzokugaku] 126: 79-90 (Japanese publication).
McDonald, A. 2008-2010. Unpublished field notes frominterviews held on eight separate field stays to HeguraIsland.
McNeill, John R. 2000. Something New Under the Sun: An
Environmental History of the Twentieth Century. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Merchant, C. 2002. The Columbia Guide to American
Environmental History. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Statistics. 2010. (Japanese publication).
Nakada, S. 1987. Fisheries History of Mie Prefecture. Tsu:
Nakata Shiro Sensei Kiju Kinen Kankokai (Japanesepublication).
Ohkita, T. 1989. Diving Fishing Activities and Marine
Resource Management. Tokyo: Kokonshoin.

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Case Study 6: Satoumi at Work: An Urban Project in Tokyo

Case study

satoumi at work: an urban ProJeCt in tokyo

6

keita Furukawa
Japan National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, 3-1-1, Nagase, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-0826, Japan.
E-mail: furukawa-k92y2@ysk.nilim.go.jp

ABstrACt
The shores of industrialised nations are often laden with human-made structures that replaced large
segments of natural habitats, and the seascapes of emerging economies are rapidly coming to resemble them. Urbanised sections have far-reaching influence on ecosystems through their fragmentationof the remaining littoral. Managing coastal biodiversity will thus entail work within human-built environments, and its applicability in urban settings is perhaps just as relevant a test of satoumi’s value forbiodiversity conservation as is its use in more pristine areas.
This case study reports on the practical application of satoumi concepts in the management of the Tokyo
Bay Renaissance Action Plan. The satoumi approach proved appealing to a metropolitan coastal community, providing it with new and useful possibilities for engagement in conservation. In the Tokyo Bay
area, constructing artificial habitats can be considered an urban expression of satoumi’s premise thatcertain human actions can enhance coastal ecosystem biodiversity. Observations showed that humanmade tide pools rapidly became host to target species and increased biodiversity in adjacent areas aswell. Basic lessons for urban biodiversity management include: (1) the need to look for benefits otherthan biodiversity. In this case, authorisation to build the tide pools was obtained largely because of
their value in stabilising seawalls to minimize damage from earthquakes and/or high tide; (2) the needto carefully adjust tide pool parameters to the requirements of target species; and (3) artificial habitat
monitoring and management constitute an opportunity for conservation action that is welcomed by
the riparian community.
This case study demonstrates the value of satoumi in urban settings for biodiversity management at thecommunity level. An important upcoming task now is to effectively apply lessons learned from successful efforts at the community level to implementation within larger management frameworks and at thelevel of national policy.

thE tokyo BAy EnvIronmEnt
The environs of Tokyo Bay are an enclosed, heavily
populated and densely used bay area in Japan. The
outer bay is open to the Pacific Ocean, and the inner
bay is approximately 50 kilometres NE to SW, 20 kilometres wide and with an average depth of 15 metres(Figure 1). A total of 25 million people reside in the
inner bay catchment area of 7500km2. Beginningaround 1950, the concentration of population andindustry in this river basin has brought radical changes
to Tokyo Bay’s coastal areas.
The changes include significantly altered coastline andsediment fraction of the bay seafloor. In the 1950s, thebay was enclosed by an oval-shaped, smooth coastline
with a fringe tidal flat about two to six kilometres wide,
and the seafloor of the shoreward area was covered
with sand. Today, the coastline is jagged with thestraight lines and sharp angles of a multitude of docks,
and the seafloor of the region is covered by fine particle
mud and silt with high organic matter content due toanthropogenic pressures on the ecosystem, including
nutrient input that exceeds the capacity to absorb it.

54

The reclamation of mudflats and tidal flats in particular resulted in marked declines in tidal current speeds,
which in turn contributed to fine particle accretion,and nutrient concentration caused eutrophication
and an accumulation of rich organic sediment on thebottom.
Water circulation characteristics in the Bay were
profoundly modified by the reduction of its surface
area by some 80 per cent between 1960 and 2000 due
Tokyo	

Kenzaki	20	
  km	
Suzaki	FIgurE 1. Location of Tokyo Bay and its topography.

55

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 6: Satoumi at Work: An Urban Project in Tokyo

part of the bay, which should be an area of high priority in restoration plans.

a)	
  Sampling	
  points	

ACtIon PlAn For tokyo BAy
rEnAIssAnCE

Number	  of	
  Species	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Number	  of	
  Species	b)	
  Benthos	  	March	
  2006	c)	
  Sessle	  	
March	
  2006	

Number	  of	
  Species	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Number	  of	
  Species	Tidal	
  Flats	
  Sampling	
  Points	  Sea	  Walls	
  Sampling	
  Points	  Water	
  Quality	
  Sampling	
  Points	

September	
  2006	others	  arthropod	  annelida	  mollusk	Sampling	  Points	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Sampling	
  Points	
September	
  2006	

Plants	  others	  arthropod	  annelida	  mollusk	Sampling	  Points	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Sampling	
  Points	

FIgurE 2. Benthos and sessile distribution in Tokyo Bay.

to landfill and reclamation. There has been an 11 percent decrease in the tidal range in the inner part of thebay and a 20 per cent decrease in the tidal current in
the section where the bay narrows (Unoki and Konishi
1999; Yanagi and Onishi 1999). In addition to the
reduction of barotropic circulation, baroclinic7 circulation has been enhanced due to the rising demand for
fresh water in urban areas resulting in an increase in
fresh water discharge into the bay (from about 350m3
in the 1920s to 450m3 in the 1990s). This thicker top
layer of fresh water usually increased stratificationand hence enhanced baroclinic circulation, reducing average residence time of water from 30 days to
20 days in summer, and from 90 days to 40 days in
winter (Takao et al. 2004).
These changes appear to have affected the distributionof plants and animals. Igarashi and Furukawa (2007)
have drawn a distribution map of benthos and sessile
on tidal flats and seawalls (Figure 2). The data showthat (1) even in the inner, highly eutrophic part ofthe bay, tidal flats maintained rich benthos diversity,and (2) sessile diversity was strongly influenced by
7

56

Barotropic circulation is the part of the water motion
where horizontal velocities do not depend on depth,
while baroclinic circulation is depth-dependent part.

the spatial distribution of water properties, includingtransparency or salinity. Severe anoxic water expansion during summer to autumn also affected faunal
distribution in the inner part of the bay.
The ecological network8 was severely disrupted by theanthropogenic impact on both habitats and transport,
and urbanisation has in all likelihood fragmented key
connections of the network. Hinata and Furukawa(2006) studied certain characteristics of the ecologicalnetwork in the Bay, including that of the short-neckedclam larvae. Changes in the hydrodynamic circulation
have weakened the flow field over the north-western
8

Ecological networks, or environmental connectivity,
are important aspects of marine ecosystems, in partdue to the number of and long distance travelledby larvae. Since some living creatures have uniquepatterns of life stages, larvae juveniles and adults aretransported to and make their habitats in different
places at different stages. These patterns together
make up what is known as an environment network.
The existence of a healthy network is one of the mostimportant criteria in assessing the bay environment.
The network is established with nodes and passes.
Nodes are the habitats, and passes are corridors in thebay formed mainly by the effects of water circulation.
For more information on environment networks, seefor example, Planes et al. (2009).

On 26 March 2003, the Tokyo Bay Renaissance
Promotion Council, composed of six central government agencies9 and eight regional government bodies10
endorsed an “Action Plan for Tokyo Bay Renaissance”.
Rather than examining the overall management
framework, we will focus below on two ways inwhich satoumi objectively enhanced the effectiveness of biodiversity management within the Action
Plan: artificial habitat construction and community
involvement.
The Action Plan for Tokyo Bay Renaissance was initiated by decision of the Urban Renaissance Project of
the Japanese Cabinet in December 2001. Prefecturesand cities surrounding the bay and relevant central
government ministries formed a council to promote
the restoration of Tokyo Bay in 2003 (Figure 3). Its
goal is to restore the beautiful coastal environment
for people to enjoy and sustain its natural biodiversity.
It is to be achieved through collaboration among theagencies involved within ten years (by 2012), and issubject to an annual review of related activities; Twointernal appraisals were conducted in 2006 and 2009,and management adopted their findings.
Several places to be monitored and assessed forrestoration and management (called “appeal points”,
Figure 4) have been designated in an area of priority
implementation. Each point has specific targets forrestoration, allowing the use of objective and quantifiable indicators of progress toward the restoration
objectives. The hope is that achieving these appeal
point targets will contribute to enhanced ecosystem
health in areas surrounding them as well. In addition, by providing node habitats, successful activity
around the appeal points could strengthen environmental connectivity throughout the bay and hence
9

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism; Japan Coast Guard; Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries; Forestry Agency; Fisheries
Agency; Ministry of the Environment; and Cabinet
Secretariat.

10 Tokyo metropolitan city, Chiba prefecture, Kanagawa
prefecture, Saitama prefecture, Yokohama city,
Kawasaki city, Chiba city and Saitama city.

FIgurE 3. Structure of the Tokyo Bay Renaissance
Promotion Council.

FIgurE 4. Zoning and monitoring points of actionplans for Tokyo Bay renaissance.
Source: Tokyo Bay Renaissance Promotion Conference: Action Plan
for Tokyo Bay Renaissance, 2004. http://www1.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/
KANKYO/TB_Renaissance/index.html

promote overall bay ecosystem health. Finally, activities at the appeal points helped develop a model for
urban type satoumi implementation, as described in
more detail herein.

hABItAt CrEAtIon PrACtICEs In
shIBAurA IslAnD, tokyo
Habitat creation, a cornerstone of biodiversity management in the Tokyo Bay Renaissance Action Plan, is
one of the two major contributions of satoumi to thisparticular framework for managing biodiversity. A
habitat creation project with public participation has
been implemented in an urban canal on Shibaura
Island, Tokyo, since December 2005 and provided

57

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 6: Satoumi at Work: An Urban Project in Tokyo

Tidal flatfor benthos: Production sideof Ecosystem

Tide poolfor fish larvae: Consumption sideof Ecosystem

FIgurE 5. Schematic image and cross section of
Shibaura Island.

valuable lessons for urban satoumi. Since 2004, private
developers have transformed this former warehousezone into to a neighbourhood of high-rise residential facilities housing approximately 10,000 people.
On one side of Shibaura island is Shibaura canal, which
receives major inflows of sewage water discharge andempties into Tokyo Bay through two sluices. It is atypical urban brackish water area with a complex flow
pattern. Two 4m x 8m pools have been constructedon the rocky flat terrace of the sea wall (Figure 5). The
height of the terrace was designed to be lower thanthe high water level but higher than the mean waterlevel. The depth of the pools is around 0.5 metres, andthey are 80 per cent filled with sand. Each pool has asmall inlet section (-0.1m deep, 1.5m wide) throughthe seawall to enhance water circulation during inundation and drainage.
Hydraulic and water quality parameters in tide poolsand surrounding canals were carefully monitored(Satoh et al. 2007). A float experiment was carriedout with the participation of local volunteers (Satohet al. 2006), and showed an estuarine water circulation
driven by density due to stratification. This confirmedthat the canal network can act as tidal courses do,
although only in a limited area.
Dissolved oxygen (DO) has been monitored in thepools and surrounding canal water. DO is a vital
parameter for animal life as respiration necessitates
sufficient oxygen, and a useful indicator of overall
health of an aquatic environment in areas where human
influence is strong. DO in the pools is more variable
than in the canal because of daytime DO production
driven by benthic algae photosynthesis. The combination of diurnal solar radiation and semidiurnal tides
in summer causes high levels of anoxic water (waters

58

with very low values of DO, in other words with nosignificant oxygen available) even in a tide pool. The
critical depth of the pool can be 0.3-0.5m. In deeper
pools, the daytime production of DO by photosynthesis
from plants does not compensate for DO consumption during the night by animal respiration and plant
metabolism. This is because photosynthetic production of oxygen increases slower with larger depths thanrespiration. This critical depth is a function of canal
DO, relative height of the terrace, sediment propertiesand depth of the pool (Umeyama et al. 2010). As well,
due to its small thermal capacity, water temperature in
the pool is higher than the surface waters of the canal inspring and summer, and lower in autumn and winter.
To turn a tide pool in a canal area into a healthy, welloxygenated urban wetland, pool depth and dimension,a fresh water supply and other hydraulic parametersmust be adjusted rather precisely.
In pools where these parameters have been carefully
set and controlled, only half a year after construction,
juvenile gobies, mullets and sand worms populated
the pools (Table 1). The mean size of the gobies inpools and surrounding water indicate the interesting role of pools (Figure 6). It seems that the size ofgobies increases during June-August and decreases
from August to February. Gobies (Acanthogobius flavimanus) hatch from eggs from January to March in thebay. Juveniles (approx. 5-15cm) remain in shallow
estuaries from April to October, and adults (approx.
20cm) come down to the river mouth and bay from
November to January, after which they spawn in the
deeper mud bed of the bay. As their size increases,
adult gobies move from the pool into the surrounding water, where their presence is confirmed by fieldobservation. It seems that bigger gobies tend to preferdeeper pools, presumably in relation to their cooler
summer temperature and richer DO.

tABlE 1. Abundance of fish in the pools (total numberof abundance in pool A and B).
Date

Eel

Goby

MulletPrawn

July 06

3

504

580

28

Sep. 06

2

119

201

4

June 07*

1

310

50

0

Aug. 07

0

1168

213

37

Oct. 07

1

222

26

235

*

Only Pool A was sampled.

For managers looking for realistic options to manage
biodiversity (or reduce its rate of decline) in urban andperi-urban coastal areas, it is perhaps worth mentioning that the winning argument to convince local
authorities to allow construction of these tide pools
was not biodiversity but safety. In case of earthquake,the artificial terrace on the seaside of the seawalls
provides extra stability against sliding failure. Suchmulti-benefit approaches are likely to become essential for biodiversity management in urban areas where
safety and economics often get higher priority thanless tangible biodiversity concerns.
Satoumi can be seen as underpinning these biodiversity management practices based on habitat creation.
Artificial marine habitat creation in urban areas and/or
human-made coastal structures is currently an active
field, and such initiatives are hardly unique to Japan or
satoumi (e.g. Chapman and Blockley 2009; Martins etal. 2010). In satoumi, such approaches to conservation
devolve naturally from the basic premise that humaninteraction with ecosystems can be positive. In thiscase, human interaction involves artificial habitat creation, and such active work on the environment may
well become a valuable tool at the disposal of managers interested in preserving or restoring biodiversity
in significantly human-transformed coasts.

participants were taught specially-designed observation methods and objectives, and their contributionof routine monitoring was essential in demonstrating
the high habitat hosting potential of the tide pools forfish (gobies) and benthos (sand worms and crabs).
One of the public participation monitoring tasks isa habitat creation project (Hayakawa et al. 2008).
This project is led by researchers with the objectiveof teaching people about and raising awareness of theworkings of nature in neighbouring environments. It
involves classroom orientation, workshop activities,
and field observation (Figure 7). These activities havegreatly enhanced the participants’ interest in continual involvement in the project. Citizen volunteers
also participate in fisheries census of gobies, whichhave been carried out once or twice a year since 2008
involve about 200 people. Participants in the census
measure the size and species of their catch over twohours of fishing, thus providing and indicators ofabundance, age and health of gobies and other valuable data for the study of the ecosystem network.
Starting in 2009, the community’s interaction with
their environment went beyond monitoring and intoexperimenting with habitat-building. To create a site
more attractive to juvenile gobies, sand was added in
one of the artificial tidal pools, elevating its bottom
and decreasing the pool depth. Ongoing monitoringis carried out by a partnership of citizens, scientists
and local governments. The group is trying to use thisbiodiversity-focused endeavour to create an attractive,
leisure-oriented piece of shoreline (Sakurai et al. 2007).

humAn InvolvEmEnt AnD ImPACt on
shIBAurA IslAnD’s hABItAt

FIgurE 6. Mean size of sampled gobies in pools A,
B and surrounding water by fisheries census.

The second contribution of satoumi to the effectiveness of biodiversity management in the Tokyo Bay
Renaissance Action Plan is its value in involving local
communities. With the support of scientists and local
governments, citizens were actively engaged in partnership-type collaboration. Local communities,

FIgurE 7. Habitat creation project photographs,
including classroom orientation, workshop
activities, and field observation.

59

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 6: Satoumi at Work: An Urban Project in TokyoBox 4: Partnership for environmental educationand ecosystem restoration: The case of eelgrass bed
reestablishment
Eri Ota, Research Fellow of Ocean Policy Research Foundation and Memberof Amamo Revival Collaboration in Kanazawa-Hakkei, Tokyo Bay Area
The rehabilitation of eelgrass beds brings about valuable opportunities
to accomplish both environmental education and ecosystem restoration
through innovative partnerships. Eelgrass (Zostera marina, Amamo in Japanese) is the most widespread species ofseagrass in Japan. As discussed in several of the case studies (see in particular the Okayama case study), amamo
beds fill essential functions in coastal ecosystems. Due to changes in the Japanese coastal environment since theearly 1970s, associated with rapid industrialization and coastal area development, eelgrass bed areal coveragehas decreased drastically. However, recent efforts to restore them through the partnership of various stakeholders
have been met with success at a number of sites. The 2008 Amamo Summit brought together people involved insuch activities from more than 15 sites. In the case of Kanagawa, the rehabilitation of eelgrass beds in Tokyo bay
has been conducted with the collaboration of non-profit organisations, elementary schools, the Marine Fisheries
Research Center, and central and local governments. The reestablishment of eelgrass beds requires continuous efforts, such as seedling, picking whips and picking seeds, and involves significant manual labour for which
volunteer participation is essential. These activities are conducted throughout the year and have been ongoingfor almost a decade. Elementary schools use the reestablishment sites for environmental education, and teachers,
students and their parents provide a valuable workforce. Thanks to their and other partners’ efforts, eelgrass bed
areal coverage in restoration sites has expanded remarkably. As a result, biodiversity and overall marine ecosystem health in surrounding areas has improved. Further, the participation of children is expected to yield long-term
benefits in terms of both environmental and civic education for the community.

Satoumi was an essential part of the discoursethat mobilised the local community, and provided
habitat construction activities that brought out asurprisingly strong yearning among participants
for a deeper connection with the nature surrounding them, nature all but annihilated in this heavily
urbanised area. Reviving consumers’ connection withcoastal ecosystems and food-producing seascapes isincreasingly recognized as essential to foster moresustainable behaviour and consumption patterns in
the long run, and is a central aspect of the modern
satoumi discourse.

Conclusions and the way forward
This case study reported on the role of satoumi in theTokyo Bay Renaissance Action Plan. The study focusedon the two areas in the management framework
where satoumi was most useful. The first, carefully
controlled biodiversity restoration through the creation of artificial habitats, can be seen as the modern,urban expression of the basic satoumi hypothesis thathumans can nurture nature in coastal ecosystems.
The second is community involvement in biodiversity conservation, another pillar of modern satoumi

60

practice. In this case study, the local urban community provided valuable ecosystem monitoring and took
part in an artificial habitat creation project.
For staff involved in urban biodiversity restorationon the ground, one important consideration reported
here is that constructing artificial tide pools that are
effective for biodiversity restoration necessitates careful tuning of key parameters, such as tide pool depth,
sediment thickness and dissolved oxygen, depending on the target species to be hosted. Observations
demonstrate that if these parameters are set correctly,
artificial tide pools will be rapidly populated by target
species, even in an enclosed bay with severe environmental degradation and very little remaining natural
habitat, such as Tokyo Bay. It is worth noting that theargument that convinced coastal authorities to accept
the construction of the tide pools was the stabilisingrole of the terrace on the adjacent seawall, as a safetyenhancing structure in case of earthquake and hightide. As such, these types of artificial tide pools constitute a promising, cost-effective, multi-benefit approachfor coastal managers interested in biodiversity preservation. Artificial coastal habitat creation is certainly
not unique to satoumi, but it is an approach coherently fitting in a satoumi-oriented project, as satoumi

is underpinned by the assumption that human action
on the marine environment can, under certain circumstances, enhance ecosystem health and biodiversity.
Satoumi was also essential in formulating a management framework that ensures the effective engagementof local communities, providing them with options
for positive interaction with their local marine environment. As an alternative to a discourse focused on
restricting human interaction with nature, it provided
possibilities for constructive action by this urban
community, where the desire to reclaim their local
natural environment was surprisingly strong.
Local community participation should remain a major
element in scaling up activities and exploiting thesefield-tested satoumi practices. Further research, continued engagement of scientists with local communities
and government, and knowledge sharing will be important in ensuring that community level good practices are
effectively used in larger scale management and policy
frameworks. Certainly one of the major challenges for
satoumi implementation in the coming years will be
to bring a still largely community-level practice into
national policy. Experiences reported in this satoumi
case study support the view that biodiversity conservation in urban and peri-urban environment will benefit
from complementing restriction-based approaches withactive measures involving further human modificationon the ecosystem for conservation purposes.

Acknowledgements
The author expresses his special thanks to the Port andHarbour Bureau of Tokyo Metropolitan City, ShibauraKonan Regional Office of Minato Ward and NPO“Umi-Juku” for their valuable contributions to theproject. Special thanks also to Dr. N. Sakurai (Kajima
Corp.), Dr Y. Ichimura (Mikuniya Corp.) and Tokyo
Kyuei Co., LTD, for their help on site observation.

References
Chapman, M.G., and D.J. Blockley. 2009. “Engineering
Novel Habitats on Urban Infrastructure to Increase
Intertidal Biodiversity.” Oecologia 161: 625-35.

Hayakawa, O., K. Furukawa, N. Kawamura, H. Inoue,
K. Setou, and M. Furukawa. 2008. “Practice and its
Preliminary Accomplishment of Habitat Creation
Project with Citizens Participation.” Annual Journal of
Civil Engineering in the Ocean 24: 771-76.
Hinata, H., and K. Furukawa. 2006. “Ecological
Network Linked by the Planktonic Larvae of theClam Ruditapes Philippinarum in Tokyo Bay.” In The
Environment in Asia Pacific Harbours, edited by Eric
Wolanski, 35-45. Dordrecht: Springer.
Igarashi, M., and K. Furukawa. 2007. “Characteristics of
Spatial Distribution of Benthos and Sessile Organisms
at Tokyo Bay Shore.” Annual Journal of Civil
Engineering in the Ocean 23: 459-64.
Martins, G., R.C. Thompson, A.I. Neto, S.J. Hawkins, and
S.R. Jenkins. 2010. “Enhancing Stocks of the Exploited
Limpet Patella candei d’Orbigny via Modifications in
Coastal Engineering.” Biological Conservation 143 (1):203-11.
Planes, S., G.P. Jones, and S.R. Thorrold. 2009. “Larval
Dispersal Connects Fish Populations in a Network ofMarine Protected Areas.” Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science (PNAS) 106 (14): 5,693-97.
Sakurai, N., T. Kato, S. Edahiro, H. Kobayashi, andK. Furukawa. 2007. “Application of the adaptive
management technique to creature’s living place inthe city brackish water region.” Annual Journal of Civil
Engineering in the Ocean 23: 495-500.
Satoh, C., K. Furukawa, and K. Nakayama. 2007. “Public
Participation on Field Observations of ‘Umi-no-kao’
and ‘Kawa-no-kao’ in Shibaura Canal, Japan.” Annual
Journal of Civil Engineering in the Ocean 23: 763-68.
Satoh, C., K. Furukawa, and T. Okada. 2006.
“Macobenthic Fauna as Restoration Objectives and Its
Constraints in Keihin Canal, Japan” Annual Journal of
Civil Engineering in the Ocean 22: 211-16.
Takao, T., T. Okada, K. Nakayama, and K. Furukawa.
2004. “Seasonal Variation of Residence Time of Sea
Water in Tokyo Bay during 2002.” Technical Noteof National Institute for Land and InfrastructureManagement 169: 1-78 (In Japanese with English
abstract).
Umeyama, T., K. Furukawa, and T. Okada. 2010. “Design
Concept for a Terrace Type Coastal Revetment as
Habitat Environment Restoration.” Technical Note of
NILIM 587: 1-55 (In Japanese with English abstract).
Unoki, S., and T. Konishi. 1999. “Decreases of Tides andTidal Currents due to the Reclamation in Bays and Its
Effect on the Distribution of Material.” Oceanography
in Japan 7: 1-9 (In Japanese).
Yanagi, T., and K. Onishi. 1999. “Change of Tide, Tidal
Current, and Sediment due to Reclamation in Tokyo
Bay.” Oceanography in Japan 8: 411-15 (In Japanese).

Furukawa, K., and T. Okada. 2006. “Tokyo Bay: Its
Environmental Status—Past, Present, and Future.” In
The Environment in Asia Pacific Harbours, edited by
Eric Wolanski, 15-34. Dordrecht: Springer.

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 7: Towards Satoumi in Ago Bay

Case study

towards satoumi in aGo bay

7

osamu matsuda1 and hideki kokubu2
Hiroshima University, present address: 6-8-13 Hachihonmatsu-Minami, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-0144 Japan.
E-mail: matsuda036@go3.enjoy.ne.jp
2 Mie Fisheries Research Institute, 3564-3 Hamajima, Shima, Mie, 517-0404 Japan. E-mail: kokubuh00@pref.mie.jp
1

ABstrACt
Amid the stunning landscapes of Ago Bay, humans made abundant yet sustainable use of high local
biodiversity for centuries. Until the onset of severe environmental degradation from overexploitationand land-use changes starting in the 1960s, this place represented the archetype of traditional satoumi
in both its physical and cultural environment. Satoumi became a central feature of environmental restoration activities in the bay, and eventually the idea took firm hold in local communities, today actively
engaged in conservation. Their contributions include essential routine environmental monitoring andother critical tasks. Carefully designed artificial tidal flats demonstrated a clear increase in species diversity. Controlling nutrient fluxes and water exchange between the seaward and landward sides of a dyke
brought water and sediment parameters within the optimal range for macrobenthos biodiversity, which
rapidly rose in response. In these cases, restoring water, sediment, and biodiversity conditions closer topre-industrial conditions was best achieved by more, rather than less, human action on the environment– a crucial aspect in building modern satoumi. From a management perspective, satoumi carried out
at the grassroots level has proven to be effective in engaging local Ago Bay communities. At the level ofcities and larger jurisdictions, incorporation of satoumi concepts and processes into an integrated coastalmanagement framework is a promising avenue now being explored by decision-makers for Ago Bay.

IntroDuCtIon
Ago Bay is located in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, andis a typical enclosed coastal sea with a complex riastype coastline (Mie Fisheries Research Institute 2009;
Figure 1). The bay is central to Ise-Shima National Park
which, because of its scenic beauty, valuable natural
endowments and long cultural history, was the firstnational park to be established in Japan. Historically,
the area was known as Miketsu-kuni, a name thatindicated its special status as a supplier of foods, particularly marine products in this case, to the imperial
court and to Ise shrine, one of Japan’s most revered
and ancient Shinto shrines. This combination in Ago
Bay of a quiet enclosed sea and a rich historic heritage has imbued the local community with an inborn
sense and ages-old image of Japan’s traditional satoumi(Yanagi 2010). Such a place is symbolic; it stirs anancient nostalgia for seascapes of rugged, green andhilly coastlines, where people could thrive on the richbounty of a diverse and healthy marine ecosystem.
Ago Bay is also known for its pearl culture, which isextremely well suited to the mild climate and enclosed
marine environment whose rias coastline protects thewaters of the bay from sea-wave disturbance. Pearlculture in Ago Bay goes back well over a hundredyears. The bay originally provided a healthy natural
habitat for the akoya oyster, and its development as acentre of aquaculture began with these oysters. Later,
benefiting from techniques learned from Akoya pearl
culture, the local people launched other kinds of aquaculture-based fisheries. It was in Ago Bay, in fact, that

62

FIgurE 1. Pearl oyster rafts are a traditional featurein the scenic beauty of Ago Bay.

the world’s cultured pearl industry was started. It began
in 1893, when a local marine products trader together
with fisheries scientists succeeded in producing a semicircular pearl after inserting a pearl nucleus, obtained
from a shell bead, into an oyster and then letting thepearl form inside. With this technical development,
pearl culture carried on by local fishers prospered in
Ago Bay, and after World War II pearl production in
the Mie Prefecture dominated the Japanese market
for ornamental pearls. Besides cultured pearls, Ago
Bay is also one of the largest producers of aonori, or
green laver (Monostroma sp.), which has been cultivated since the late 1960s.11
11 Harvested green laver is sold as a food product after
drying. Thirty to forty per cent of Japan’s green laveris produced in Ago Bay.

63

CBD Technical Series No. 61

This case study offers a glimpse into the long-term
commitment of scientists and communities to revitalize the Ago Bay marine ecosystem by restoring
deteriorated tidal flats and seagrass beds. Inseparablefrom that and equally important is their goal ofmainstreaming satoumi activities into the basic development plan of the local government, which is thefoundation of all development policies concerned withthe area. Thus, they are working to meet the challengeof applying the ideas of satoumi in a specific case by
successfully combining the views of scientists, the local
community and policy processes.

History of Ago Bay fisheries andchanges in the marine ecosystem
In 1960, total catch, including shellfish, sea cucumbers,
prawns and seaweed, was over 600 tons in Ago Bay. But
this figure fell dramatically after 1965, partly becauseof the deterioration of the bay environment and thechange from traditional fish-catch fisheries to pearl
oyster culture (Figure 2, upper panel). Subsequently,
green laver culture was developed in response to thedecline of pearl oyster culture in the late 1960s, resulting from overproduction and the rapid increase in the
proportion of low quality pearls produced (Figure 2,
lower panel).
More recently, cultured fisheries have been damaged
by eutrophication and red tides. In 1992, a red tide ofHeterocapsa circularisquama occurred in Ago Bay for

64

Figure 4. Mass mortality of bivalves byhypoxia (Ugatahama 2002).

  T  F 	      s	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  3ha	       s	  	
  81ha	  Reclaimed	
  Area	
  Reclaimed	
  areas	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  185ha	  Figure 2. Changes in fish catch and production ofcultured pearls and green laver.

the first time, and since then there have been frequent
harmful algal blooms of this micro-algae that havecaused mass mortality of the pearl oyster. In the mid1990s, hypoxia (abnormally low levels of oxygen)
began occurring every year in the deeper layers of
Ago Bay water, usually from June to October, when
the concentration of dissolved oxygen plummets in thecentral and inner parts of the bay (Figure 3). Seasonallyoccurring hypoxia has caused severe decline in thenumber of shellfish, polychaeta and other benthic
organisms which, unlike fish, are unable to move outof hypoxic waters (Figure 4). During the summer of
2002, large-scale hypoxia covered the Ago Bay marine
ecosystem and eradicated a large part of its aquatic life,
including its pearl culture, in the inner part of the bay.
Because of hypoxia and red tide, much of the marine
biological diversity of the bay was lost, and the aero-

Figure 3. Areas in Ago Bay affected by hypoxia(Ugatahama 2002).

Figure 5. Distribution of tidal flats in Ago Bay.

Density"ind./0.1m2)

The twentieth century development of pearl and green
laver culture has become the basis of human interaction with the bay. Together, these enterprises contributeto vistas that evoke in the popular imagination a muchloved, quintessential satoumi seascape, where, on thecalm surface of a small enclosed sea surrounded by
sturdy green hills, nets and oyster rafts sway quietlyon the water, continuing the ages-old, harmonious
interplay between ocean and humans. Nets for green
laver culture deployed along the coast can be seen allover the bay from autumn to spring, reflecting thechanging seasons and echoing the transient natureof the seascape. As in many parts of Japan, however,the coastal area of Ago Bay was transformed during
the post–World War II decades of industrialization.
Its marine ecosystem was steadily degraded by artificial eutrophication, caused mainly by industrial andresidential run-off and by human manipulation of thecoastline that converted natural tidal flats into landfill.

Case Study 7: Towards Satoumi in Ago Bay	 	 								!	

Figure 6. Changes in water and sedimentquality in Ago Bay.


!	
!	

Figure 7. Composition of benthos by type of tidal flat in
Ago Bay.

bic decomposition of organic material was disturbed,
disrupting nutrient circulation in the water.
As for physical changes in Ago Bay’s coastal geography, surveys indicate that approximately 70 per centof tidal flat and shallow areas have been lost to landdevelopment, namely dyke construction and land reclamation. Figure 5 (upper panel) shows existing naturaland reclaimed tidal flat areas estimated from multispectrum aerial picture analysis. The tidal flats wereclassified into three types (estuary, tidal flat in frontof the dyke and wetland behind the dyke). The relative areas of estuary tidal flats, foreshore tidal flats andreclaimed areas are shown in Figure 5 (lower panel).
The estimated nutrient load to Ago Bay in terms of
total nitrogen (TN) steadily increased from 1950 to1990, mainly because of relentlessly rising volumesof industrial and domestic runoff. The bay sediment’s
chemical oxygen demand (COD), an indicator ofconcentration in organic component, is rising every
year due to the accumulation of organic material,even though COD in the water itself shows littlechange (Figure 6). Macrobenthos on both sidesof the dyke became rare, because sediment quality was relatively oligotrophic in front of the dyke,
and it was hypertrophic behind the dyke. Physicaltransformation of the coast, particularly by dyke
construction, and the rising levels of polluted residential and industrial river discharge into the bay
caused serious deterioration in the benthic ecosystem, resulting in the decrease in biological diversity
and productivity in Ago Bay (Figure 7). In order toassess the present condition of Ago Bay, a healthexamination scheme developed by the Ocean Policy
Research Foundation (OPRF) was applied. In addi-

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 7: Towards Satoumi in Ago Bay

Before	  construc,on	
  FIgurE 8. Results of the preliminary healthexamination of Ago Bay with the OPRF healthexamination system (see text).

tion to water quality, the scheme evaluates ecosystemstability and smoothness of material circulation.
Results are shown in Figure 8.

rEstorIng Ago BAy mArInE ECosystEm
AnD BIoDIvErsIty
Responding to the negative ecosystem changes andtheir effect on local fisheries, fishing communities,
scientists and local government officials together
adopted a satoumi approach to restoration. They saw
satoumi not simply as focused on restoring a traditional, nostalgia-evoking seascape, but also as apractical framework for conservation that can put towork carefully controlled human modification of theenvironment. That is, they aimed to recreate a productive and functional Ago Bay based on scientific dataand community initiative. Called the “Environmental
Restoration Project on Enclosed Coastal Seas in AgoBay”, it was managed under a regional programmeof the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
Then, in 2008, the Committee for the Promotion ofEnvironmental Restoration in Ago Bay was formed
with the objective to reproduce the symbiotic relationship between Ago Bay and regional communities,
establishing collaborations to conduct a variety ofactivities to enhance biological diversity and biologicalproductivity, including controlling sediment quality,
improving seagrass beds and enhancing water circulation in strategic areas.
Part of the restoration programme was to create six
experimental tidal flats, with sediments of different
organic content, which could be used to investigate sediment conditions suitable for macrobenthos

66

FIgurE 9. Conceptual diagram of the relationshipbetween sediment nutrient concentration andabundance of macrobenthos as determinedfrom monitoring six experimental tidal flats withdifferent sediment qualities for three years. The
experiment showed the optimal range for the
sediment nutrient content for macrobenthos
abundance and diversity.

habitat. The flats were monitored for three years. The
experiment revealed an optimal range in sedimentparameters for the macrobenthos, of 3-10mg/gDW
for COD and 15-35 per cent for mud content, roughly
indicating organic content (Kokubu and Okumura
2010). The relationship between sediment nutrient
content and density of macrobenthos is shown in
Figure 9. These results show that the balance of organic
matter and mud content in the sediment must be carefully adjusted and maintained to provide a soundhabitat for macrobenthos. By utilizing those findings,
we developed practical methods to control sedimentconditions and enhance biological productivity in two
types of shallow areas in Ago Bay.

FIgurE 10. Schematic diagram of the characteristics of shallow
areas in Ago Bay, with nutrient content too high landward of thedyke, and too low seaward of the dyke, to provide sound habitat for
macrobenthos.

showed that sediment was hypertrophic and anaerobic before water exchange and Chironomidae were thedominant species at that time, because the wetland wasbrackish. But both wet weight and diversity were small.
After water exchange, the macrobenthos changed frombrackish type to marine type. The diversity and wet
weight gradually increased with water exchange while
COD and AVS in sediment decreased. These results
indicated that the sediment status in wetlands was
gradually changed to aerobic conditions by promoting water exchange.
Building on these results, another artificial tidal flat
field experiment was carried out to further assess
the potential of this method to restore biodiversity.
First benthic algae came to inhabit them and then
the number of macrobenthos increased. On the otherFIgurE 11. Annual changes in total
number of macrobenthos species in theexperimental tidal flat.

hand, after construction, deposit feeders, in addition
to suspension feeders, became more abundant. These
results suggested that the artificially constructed tidal
flat ecosystem had changed into a system that could
support much higher biological diversity. Seasonalchanges in abundance of macrobenthos in theexperimental tidal flat are shown in Figure 11. The
macrobenthos were classified into polyceata, bivalvia,
gastropoda, crustacea and ichtyoid. Immediately after
construction, gastropoda and crustacea were the dominant species. After six months, polyceata and bivalvia
increased, and after ten months, species number also
increased remarkably compared with that of before
construction. After four months, the abundance ofmacrobenthos increased significantly, to four times
the value before construction at the end of the firstyear, then they remained stable. As well, the exper-

One area, the tidal flat in front of the dyke, was relatively oligotrophic, and the other, the wetland behindthe dyke, was hypertrophic, so the biological diversity in both areas remained low (Figure 10). In thecase of the relatively oligotrophic tidal flat in front of
the dyke, the sediment is coarse (gravel) and contains
low organic matter because the dyke shuts out thenutrient supply from the land. These sediments were
improved by mixing them with organic-rich dredged
sediment. We found that these were effective in bringing sediment parameters within the optimal range
for macrobenthos diversity, represented in Figure 9.
In a hypertrophic wetland landward of a dyke, waterexchange with the sea was increased using a pump.
Sediment quality and abundance and diversity of
species were then continuously monitored. The results

FIgurE 12. Effect of restoring tidal flats and Zostera beds.

67

CBD Technical Series No. 61

iment showed that comprehensive restoration, that
included not only tidal flats but also seagrass beds,
showed clear evidence that numbers and species ofmacrofauna significantly increased after restoration(Figure 12).
In October 2009, a full-fledged tidal flat restoration
project was launched in Ago Bay in which waterexchange between an unused reclaimed area and thesea was set in motion by opening a flap gate in theconcrete dyke. Local fishers and volunteer citizens
in the area participated by transplanting seagrass
and releasing juvenile clams to initiate the ecosystem
recovery. In addition, as a community education effort,
the Shima Nature School was established in 2005 toprovide experience and education in nature, including a variety of field activities, such as sea kayaking.
Systematic monitoring of seashore animals by local
people started in 2009 when sampling and observation of aquatic organisms in tidal flats were undertaken
by school children. Results of this continuous monitoring will be used as an indicator of the databaseon biodiversity in Ago Bay. This project is financially
supported by the Ministry of Environment of Japan.

Conclusion
Besides its pearl production, Ago Bay is well known
as a particularly beautiful part of Ise-shima National
Park. Mismanagement for several decades led toecological deterioration, especially in terms of sediment quality, hypoxia in bottom water, and frequent,harmful algal blooms. Tidal flats and seagrass beds
that play an important role in material circulation andas habitats were severely degraded. Dyke construction, landfill, and water pollution from industrial andresidential pressure severely reduced the resilience of
the area.
For those reasons, restoration activities focused oncontrolling nutrient loading in tidal flats and wetland
sediments to the optimal range for macrobenthos
biodiversity. This has been done by enhancing water
circulation in order to reduce excess organic matterand enriching nutrient-poor sediments with unused
dredged organic rich sediments. As a result, periodic
surveys on the bay ecology convincingly demonstrate that regulating water and material circulation
across dykes has enhanced biological productivity anddiversity in and around shallow areas, and improved
sediment quality and seagrass beds.

68

Case Study 7: Towards Satoumi in Ago Bay

Citizen groups are now actively engaged in regularmonitoring of tidal flat macrobenthos and satoumi
restoration, and their participation has been incorporated into the new city planning policy of the Shimacity government, which is in charge of most aspectsof Ago Bay management. Therefore, on the local
government level, satoumi is now mainstreamed into
the policy priorities of the city, enabling the coastalmanagement of the area to proceed in a more sustainable and integrated way.
Long-term commitment of scientists to the local
community in cooperation with the administrative
staff of the city office, many local volunteers, andNGOs were essential in satoumi activities for restoration. It is hoped that their efforts will continue tosupport the area’s conservation projects and encourage sustainable use of the marine environment within
the satoumi framework.

Acknowledgements
The authors express their sincere thanks to Dr. Miyuki
Maegawa, Professor at Mie University and Dr. Satoshi
Chiba, Professor at Yokkaichi University for their critical review of the manuscript. They also wish to thankMr. Hideto Uranaka of the Shima City Office andmembers of the Research Center for the Environmentof Enclosed Coastal Sea (Mie COE) for providing valuable information and data.

Maegawa M., and H. Uranaka. 2010. “The Ago Bay
Management Initiative.” In Satoumi Workshop Report,
edited by International EMECS Center, EAS Congress,
42-47.
Matsuda, O. 2007. “Overview of Ago Bay Restoration
Project based on the New Concept of ‘Satoumi’:
A Case of Environmental Restoration of Enclosed
Coastal Seas in Japan.” In Proceedings of 1stInternational Workshop on Management and Function
Restoration Technology for Estuaries and Coastal Seas,
edited by K.T. Jung, 1-6. KORDI.
Matsuda, O. 2010. “Recent Attempts towards
Environmental Restoration of Enclosed Coastal
Seas: Ago Bay Restoration Project Based on the
New Concept of Satoumi,” Bulletin of the Fisheries
Restoration Agency 29: 9-18.
Mie Fisheries Research Institute. 2009. Ago Bay toward
New Satoumi. 62 (English brochure).
Okumura, H. et al. 2006. “Environmental Education
in Elementary School Developed in Ago Bay
area.” Proceedings of the 16th Joint Symposium by
Cooperation Council for Coastal Environment-relatedSociety in Japan (ENKANREN), 20-24 (In Japanese).
Yanagi, T. 2010. “Concept and Practice of Satoumi inJapan and Lessons Learned.” In Satoumi Workshop
Report, edited by International EMECS Center, EAS
Congress, 15-28.

References and further reading
Chiba, S. et al. 2006. “Contribution of Environmental
Monitoring System to the Solution of Environmental
Problems.” In Proceedings of the 16th Joint Symposiumby the Cooperation Council for a Coastal Environmentrelated Society in Japan (ENKANREN), 5-12 (InJapanese).
Kokubu, H., and H. Okumura. 2010. “New Technology
for Developing Biologically Productive Shallow Areain Ago Bay.” Bulletin of the Fisheries Restoration Agency
29: 49-57.
Kokubu, H., and Y. Takayama. 2008. “Evaluation of
Restoration Effects in the Coastal Unused Reclaimed
Area by Promoting Sea Water Exchange in Ago Bay,
Mie Prefecture, Japan,” In The 8th Environmental
Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas Conference.
Maegawa, M. 2006. “New Technology for developing
Zostera Beds.” Proceedings of the 16th Joint Symposiumby Cooperation Council for Coastal Environmentrelated Society in Japan (ENKANREN) 34-36 (InJapanese).

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 8: Mobilizing Local Wisdom and Scientific Knowledge: Re-Creating Eelgrass Beds in Okayama

Case study

mobilizinG loCal wisdom and sCientiFiCknowledGe: re-CreatinG eelGrass beds inokayama8

yoshitaka ota1 and masaya torii2
1
2

Policy Research Department, Ocean Policy Research Foundation. E-mail:y-ota@sof.or.jp
Fisheries promotion division, Okayama prefectural government. E-mail: masaya_torii@pref.okayama.lg.jp

ABstrACt
This case study presents a local fishing community that took the initiative in satoumi activities, mobilizing both local wisdom and scientific knowledge. It is noteworthy that the activities were aimed not
only at recovering the stock of a few commercial species, but to conserve the surrounding marine area
as a whole. Hinase is a small fishing town located on the Seto Inland Sea in Okayama Prefecture. It has
a long tradition of fishing due to a highly productive, enclosed marine ecosystem. In this town, thefishing community itself initiated a project to restore the marine ecosystem by planting eelgrass (Jp.
amamo; Zostera marina), both to maintain their level of catch on a sustainable basis and to support theecosystem of the surrounding sea for sustainable use, not just for fisheries but for other ecosystem services. The success of their restoration project can be explained by the collaborative network of different
agents that was created on the basis of close cooperation between the local fishing community, scientists and the local government. That kind of integration is considered one of the most effective featuresof satoumi activities for advancing ecosystem-based management, to conserve marine biodiversity andsupport sustainable use of marine resources.

IntroDuCtIon
Hinase is located on the southern coast of Honshu
island, facing Japan’s largest enclosed body of ocean,
the Seto Inland Sea. The town is known for its richmarine heritage, and is still one of the most commercially successful fishing towns in the Seto Inland Sea
area. About 200 fishing families make their living bycoastal fisheries, including oyster farming, small scale
trawling, and coastal pound netting, the techniquesand lore of which, including the design of the poundnets, were originally developed by Hinase fishermen.
All fishing activities in Hinase are coordinated by the
local Fisheries Cooperative Association (FCA), which
also plays the main role in managing and coordinating satoumi activities in the area, and the effort torecover the decline of the coastal habitat by recreating the eelgrass bed and removing marine waste has

FIgurE 1. The Seto Inland Sea (aerial photo of theHinase inlet area). Photograph courtesy of Bizen
Higashi Shoukou Kai.

70

been undertaken voluntarily by the fishing community. This chapter discusses the effort to recreate theeelgrass beds as a satoumi activity based on both local
wisdom and scientific knowledge gathered by fisheries officials. Besides activities to recover the habitat
loss, local fishery officials, scientists and fishermen are
now constructing a new spatial management plan of
the marine environment, including setting up areas
for restricted trawling in order to promote more efficient and sustainable use of their marine environment.

thE sEto InlAnD sEA
The commercial success of Hinase fisheries derives
from the highly productive marine ecosystem resulting from the geographical characteristics of the Seto
Inland Sea. Generally, the Inland Sea is known for its
beautiful scenery, dotted with approximately 3,000
small islands with their tree-covered mountains standing out against the deep blue of the sea. The scenery ismuch prized by the tourist industry and the national
government, which designated the entire marine areaof the Inland Sea as a national park; the Seto Inland
Sea National Park, established in 1934, is one of theearliest of Japan’s national parks.
The coastline of the Seto Inland Sea is also known forthe development of small-scale fisheries, the output of
which represents 25 per cent of Japan’s entire fisheries
production, including aquaculture. This is due to theabundance of its unique marine habitat, resulting fromthe convergence of two types of geographical settings,
narrow channels called seto, divided by scattered islets

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Case Study 8: Mobilizing Local Wisdom and Scientific Knowledge: Re-Creating Eelgrass Beds in Okayama

from wider bodies of open sea (nada). Due to thesesettings in the highly enclosed marine geography off
Hinase, water circulates to the Pacific slowly (circulation of the entire waters of the Inland Sea takes morethan a year), allowing accumulated micronutrientsreleased from river basins pouring into its waters tonurture the primary production of the marine ecosystem. Simultaneously, the current of the seto channels
prevents hypoxia in the water, re-suspending the sediment and creating a healthy turbulence in the water.
The habitat thus formed accommodates great marine
biodiversity, nurturing over 500 species of fish andother rare marine species including porpoise andJapanese horseshoe crab.
However, the precious ecosystem of the Seto InlandSea, so rich in both cultural and biological diversity was ravaged by coastal development during theperiod of rapid industrialization between 1950 andthe 1980s. Sixty per cent of the natural coast line of
the Seto Inland Sea was lost over those 30 years. The
geographical and environmental changes that took
place severely damaged the coastal ecosystem: many
species of marine life disappeared as swaths of thenatural habitat, including mud flats and eelgrass beds,
were destroyed, and the quality of the water in thehighly enclosed seas was degraded by river run-off
polluted by household sewage and toxic chemicals
drained into the sea from industrial plants. The result
was extreme cases of anthropogenic eutrophicationand chemical contamination of the marine ecosystem. Naturally, the coastal fisheries of the entire Seto
Inland Sea were deeply affected, and the ample stocksof fish and the varieties of catch once seen suffered
severe damage; after 2000, catches declined to half ofwhat they had been in 1985.

1940s	

590ha

Hinase and its fishing heritage
Located in the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea,
Hinase presides over a typical seascape of the region,
with an enclosed marine area dotted with 30 small
islands and characterized by diverse marine habitats.
The town prides itself on its long heritage as a fishingcommunity. The more than 200 full-fledged membersof the Hinase Fisheries Cooperative Association (FCA)
practice either oyster farming, small scale trawling or atype of coastal pound netting called Bizen (Tsubo) ami,
whose methods, including the technique and design ofthe net, were originally developed locally (Bizen is thename of the city of which Hinase is administratively
a part and ami means net). Most of those engaged infishing in Hinase belong to the local FCA and operatefamily businesses. There is some seasonal employmentof overseas workers for the oyster shelling process.
In Hinase, membership in the Fisheries Cooperative
Association is by family rather than by individual, as
is the case more often than not in other parts of Japan.
The chairman of the cooperation explained that thismembership system was initially established as a tool
to control fishing in the area, and functioned in the
management of spatial use of local waters in association with small pound netting. Positions for the small
pound nets deployed in the coastal area were determined and distributed to each fishing family by the
FCA. In this way, the local fishing community maintained the units of pound nets in their coastal area
and contrived to prevent over-harvest of their marine
resources by providing the membership only to local
families, thereby limiting the entrance of new persons
to the business to heirs taking over the family business. (Consequently, this encouraged other children to1960s	

82ha

Figure 2. Decline of eelgrass sea floor in Hinase marine area.

72

1980s	

12ha

migrate to other coastal areas and establish new fishing operations. Such migrants were able to succeed bybringing with them the sophisticated techniques andknowledge acquired in the use of Bizen (Tsubo) ami
pound net fishing. The efficiency and wide applicability of the small pound net is evident in the way thefishing method is popular both in Japan and overseas,
including Korea and China).
Nonetheless, the main type of commercial fisheries
in Hinase shifted to oyster farming due to market
demand and the decrease in catch and changes infish prices that made traditional pound netting lesseconomical and commercially viable. Despite thesechanges in fisheries, the Hinase FCA membershipsystem retains its initial form and the members
support community traditions and solidarity, which
the chairman believes is the key to sustaining theirfishing heritage.
In the 1960s, a new governmental project to enhance
local fish stock was begun in the Seto Inland Sea. The
project, known for its slogan “From catching fish tocultivating fish”, involved releasing cultured juvenile
fish stock into the coastal enclosed sea in order toenhance stocks of commercially valuable fish. This wasin response to the damage dealt to fish stock by theenvironmental changes that took place in the region
due to postwar urban and industrial development.
Although there was relatively limited coastal development in the Hinase inlet, the combination of waterpollution and landfill at the coastline has altered thecoastal environment by destroying the natural coastal
habitats, including eelgrass beds and mud flats. It wasat that time that local fishermen, particularly those
who used small-scale pound nets to catch shrimp,
blue crab and coastal fish such as sea bream, observed
the depletion of fish stock. Juveniles of those species
were propagated and released in the area as part of theaquaculture scheme, but the catches did not increase
and the stocks were not recovered. The culture andrelease of sole and blue crab juveniles had the same
disappointing result.
After several attempts to increase fish stock by releasing juveniles and observing the results, the fishingcommunity in Hinase recognized that it would not
be possible to recover fish stocks simply by artificially
increasing the number of juveniles. Instead, the loss offish stock had been caused by environmental changes
in the coastal ecosystem—such as destruction of thehigh biodiversity marine habitat—by landfill projects

and artificial shoreline protection works undertaken
during the post-war coastal development drive—asituation suffered by most of the coastal habitats of
the Seto Inland Sea (Oura 2010).
The operators of pound nets who work closely withthe coastal marine waters declared the failure of thescheme, particularly to the absence of eelgrass beds—
amamo-ba—that had radically decreased in Hinase
and generally in the Seto Inland Sea due to waterpollution and coastal development. The decreasein Hinase was from 590ha in the 1940s to 82ha in1971(Torii et al. 2008).

Local efforts to restore theeelgrass beds
The daily routine of pound net fishing starts with fishermen sailing out to small nets (Bizen/Tsubo ami) set
in shallow waters between three and five meters off
the coastal areas, only a few hundred meters off shore.
They bring the nets back to the shore in the earlymorning and sort their catch. After collecting the nets,
the fishermen spend their days mending the nets on
the beach. During the time when they sail their smallboats to collect the nets and also repair nets on thebeach, they closely observe the coastal waters, noticing
even minor changes in the marine environment. From
this close observation, the pound net fishermen werefamiliar with the way the eelgrass beds functioned as
the nurturing habitat of coastal fish where juveniles
protect themselves from predators. Thus, as explainedby some experienced pound net fishermen, releasing
cultured juveniles into coastal waters with almost no
eelgrass beds was the same as releasing them straight
into predators’ mouths.
Once this local wisdom was recognized, in 1985 themembers of the Hinase FCA initiated the project torecreate the eelgrass beds. The local research institute for fisheries (the Okayama Prefectural Fisheries
Experiment Station) provided instruction on techniques for cultivating and planting eelgrass, andmembers of the fishing community undertook to plantthem in the areas where they remember the original
amamo-ba had been found. The eelgrass survives byphotosynthesis, so the water where it flourishes needs
to be clear and shallow, less than three meters. The
pound net fishers knew the exact location of such areas
because they had customarily avoided the eelgrass beds
when moving in their boats to pound nets in order to73

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Case Study 8: Mobilizing Local Wisdom and Scientific Knowledge: Re-Creating Eelgrass Beds in Okayama

been designed to enhance the natural productivity ofthe marine ecosystem through artificial optimizationof ecological conditions, they also take into consideration conservation of biodiversity and sustainable useof such ecosystem services without diminishing thebalanced interaction between the fishing communityand other stakeholders.

References
Fujii, T., x. Pan, M. Yamashita, and M. Torii. 2006.
“Physical Characteristics of Zostera marina L. andStudy of Self Regeneration in Hinase, Okayama.”
Bulletin of Nara University of Education 55 (2): 19-27.

Figure 3. Preparing to plant the seed of eelgrass.

prevent the boats’ propellers from becoming entangled in the eelgrass (Tanaka 1998).
Later, this local wisdom was supplemented by scientific research conducted by local fisheries officials.
Together with scientists, the officials studied theecological factors determining the quantitative growthof the eelgrass, such as water salinity, seabed conditions and wave movements. Through the research,
they found that in some of the areas where the eelgrassbeds had been, recent environmental changes had
affected the water salinity and seabed conditions,making the artificially planted eelgrass less resilientto the movements of the current. Having understoodthat the habitat could not be recovered only by replanting eelgrass, the local fishery officials then sought toartificially adjust the seabed conditions and salinity byraising the seabed floor and mitigating the wave movements by use of floating wave dissipating devices. As
a consequence of these local governmental supports,
together with continuous community efforts in planting eelgrass, the amamo-ba in Hinase increased fromonly 12ha in 1985 to almost 100ha in 2009 (Fujii etal. 2006).

Conclusion and future planning ofmarine spatial use
Quantatively, the recovery of Hinase’s amamo-ba
is still in progress, as only 20 per cent of the initial
beds reported in 1940 have been recovered, despite
almost 25 years of community and local governmental
effort. So far, the application of both local and scientific knowledge has been advantageous in practicallyrecreating the habitat and in orchestrating coopera-

74

Figure 4. Recovery of Eelgrass sea floor in Hinasemarine area.

tion by the governmental sector, scientific experts andthe fishing community.
The cooperation of those sectors has been realized
under a scheme of ecosystem-based approaches toboth management of fish stocks and restoration ofnatural habitats. Through the use of both scientificknowledge and local environmental lore, the community has implemented a zoning scheme in coastal
areas, designating appropriate areas for fish nurseries and slightly deeper water for feeding areas for adultfish. Then, to enhance the productivity and ecological linkage between those zones, the community hasreconstructed original habitats such as eelgrass beds
and created artificial reefs, even deploying wave mitigating devices on the water surface to protect newly
planted eelgrass. The zoning scheme fundamentallyaims to protect fish habitats but considers the healthof the entire marine area in order to achieve sustainable future resource use. Furthermore, the scheme
incorporates more integrated marine space planningin order for more efficient use of marine space for awider scope of stakeholders, including space for educational areas for access by students and for no-takezones for marine conservation. Above all, the Hinasefishing community appreciates the multiple services
that the marine environment can offer and the importance of designing an inclusive marine spatial plan
to enhance the local economy and achieve sustainable use of the marine ecosystem. Thus, although the
future plans for multiple use of the marine area haveOura, K. 2010. Case 3: Hinase-cho, Bizen City, Okayama
Prefecture ‘Tsubo-ami’ (Pound Net) Fishing: Closely
Related to the Nature of the Shallow Sea. [online]
Available at: <http://www.eic.or.jp/library/bio/en/case/
c3.html>
Tanaka, T. 1998. “Current status and issues on thedevelopment of eelgrass restoration.” In 11th Kansai
Suiken Kankyo Kikou: Symposium proceedings. Osaka.
Torii, M., K. Yamada, S. Saeki, J. Maeno, and W. Hirahara.
2008. “The practice of eelgrass restoration for Tobiarea fishing ground recovery plan and its adoptive
approach based management.” Annual Journal of Civil
Engineering in the Ocean 24: 753-58.

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 9: Tidal Flat Restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary

Case study

tidal Flat restoration in the yamaGuChi
estuary9

masao ukita1, masahiko sekine2 and hajime yamano3
Yamaguchi University, contact address: 2-86-12 Nobara, Ube, Yamaguchi, 755-0024 Japan. E-mail: mukita@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
Department of Civil Engineering, Yamaguchi University, 2-16-1 Tokiwadai, Ube, Yamaguchi, 755-8611 Japan. E-mail: ms@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
3 Environmental Section Yamaguchi Prefecture, 1-1 Takimati, Yamaguchi, 753-8501 Japan. E-mail: yamano.hajime@pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp
1
2

ABstrACt
The once fertile environment of the Yamaguchi Estuary and adjacent tidal flats has been seriously degradedover the past 50 years, and local communities once intimately attached to this ecosystem are now largely
indifferent to its plight. The efforts presented in this case study are by no means of a scale sufficient toreverse this trend, but are reported as an example of manual efforts for the purpose of conservation ofa tidal flat ecosystem that illustrate well the opportunities and challenges for reviving satoumi.
In attempts to make the tidal flat more hospitable to short-necked clams (asari), local volunteers haveregularly manually tilled the tidal flat mud to soften it and favour aerobic conditions, covered the mud
surface with nets to protect the clams against eagle ray feeding, and participated in seagrass seed collection
and sowing projects. Data shows that these and other actions in this environment have been successful. Manually tilling the tidal flat to find asari used to be a typical enjoyment for local communities inthis satoumi. Today, tidal flat tilling and seagrass sowing are symbolic of satoumi, when human interaction with the coastal environment nurtures nature and contributes to the enhancement of biodiversity,
beyond what would be by hunter gatherers.
From the perspective of biodiversity management, the practices presented herein could become valuable
complements to restriction-based conservation measures in human-influenced coastal seas. We believe
it is important to develop policy frameworks that effectively reflect the experience of such local-scale
successes. Key considerations in applying these practices in wider policy frameworks include establishing a model less reliant on volunteer labour, and that is effectively integrated with other ecology-oriented
watershed practices in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, with particular attention to ecological networks,
and, for the longer term, with due attention to developing culturally appropriate environmental ethics.

ovErvIEw oF thE FushIno rIvEr BAsInAnD yAmAguChI EstuAry
Yamaguchi Prefecture is located at the western end of
Honshu Island, its southern part facing the Suo Sea, thewestern part of the Seto Inland Sea. The Fushino Riverpasses through the city of Yamaguchi and empties into
Yamaguchi Estuary (Figure 1). Annual precipitationin the area is 1,500 to 2,300mm. The mean temperature rose in the last 20 years from 14-15°C to about
15-16°C.
The Fushino River basin, which covers 322 square
kilometres, has a population of 163,000. The river is
30.3km long with a maximum altitude of 688m. In
geological terms, the west side of the basin is relatively
abundant in soft black schist and the east side in solid
granite. Land use in the old city of Yamaguchi, which
occupies most of the river basin, is 64.5 per cent forest,13.1 per cent farmland and 22.4 per cent urban residential area. The city centre and the prefectural office
are located in the middle reaches of the river. Dams
have been constructed in three places, but their total
catchment area occupies less than 5 per cent of theentire river basin. The Fushino River drainage area
is not particularly large, and a great deal of naturallandscape has been preserved from the upper to lower

76

FIgurE 1. Location of Fushino River andYamaguchi Estuary.

reaches. The river mouth and adjacent coastal areas
are also quite accessible to local residents, making it
well-suited to examine the connections between theforests, river and sea.

77

CBD Technical Series No. 61

The area of the estuary is about 1,700ha, with threetidal flats with a total area of approximately 350 to 400
hectares: Naka-gata, (located near the river mouth),Shinchi-gata and Minami-gata situated respectively
on the western and the eastern sides of the estuary.
The maximum tidal difference is approximately three
metres. Located 7.3km upstream from the river mouth
is an intake dam for irrigation.
The main freshwater fishery products of the Fushino
River basin include sweetfish (ayu): 10-20 tons;
freshwater corbicula clams (shijimi): 20 tons; small
crab (Jp. mozukugani; Eriocheir japonica): 5 tons;
eel: 100-200kg; and trout. Many of the commonly
consumed fish are propagated or farmed here. Marine
fishery products of the Yamaguchi Estuary are numerous, including conger, eel, Muraenesox, blue crab, gilt
head, perch, flathead, flatfish, squid, trepang, shrimp,
whiting and clams. Fishermen observe that a wider
variety of fish could be caught in the 1960s. A local
farmer also reported that in tidal flats at low tide heonce gathered laver and green laver seaweed, shortnecked clams, rapa whelk, pen shell, minor octopus
and oysters. He also caught flatfish, flathead, shrimp
and other small fish—even by hand—until about 1965.
Short-necked clams were so widely available that they
had little market value at the time.
The horseshoe crab, which is an endangered speciesof a shape that has remained unchanged for 200
million years, still inhabits the Yamaguchi Estuary.
The numbers are falling in other areas of the Seto
Inland Sea. They are troublesome when they become
entangled in fishnets, however, and fisherman often
end up having to kill them even knowing they areprotected. They said that 15 horseshoe crabs werecaught in 2008.
Many species of birds inhabit the estuary—71
species according to a survey conducted from 2003
to 2005—including precious endangered species likethe black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) and thebean goose (Anser fabalis). Among 68,544 individuals observed, Galloanserae (ducks; kamo) occupy
74 per cent; Scolopacidae (sandpipers; shigi): 7 per
cent; Ardeidae (herons; sagi): 5 per cent; Sibley (gulles;
kamome): 5 per cent; and Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants; u): 4 per cent. Many of these are migratory birds
from Southeast Asia, Australia and Siberia. There arecolonies of six species of herons in nearby forests.
Recently, due to the effects of climate change, cormorants have been spending the winter in Yamaguchi

78

Case Study 9: Tidal Flat Restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary

Prefecture, where they are proving to be a pest for the
ayu and other fish farms.

Changes in human activities andtheir impact on the ecosystem
The human population of the river basin increased
from 117,000 in 1960 to 163,300 in 2000, owing mainly
to the growth of the tertiary industry. Meanwhile,
the population of workers in the primary industry
began to fall from around 1960. The area of farmland
decreased with urbanization. In 1966, the farmland
and urban areas of the old city of Yamaguchi respectively occupied 14.7 per cent and 16.7 per cent of thetotal land area. In 2004, they occupied 12.2 per centand 22.4 per cent, respectively. Impervious surface
area increased due to these changes. The area of paddy
fields in the river basin fell from 70km2 in 1965 to
30km2 in 2000, and methods of agriculture were significantly modernized with the use of efficient irrigation
systems, agricultural machines, chemical fertilizers
and pesticides. The ratio of households connected tocentralised wastewater treatment systems increased
from 18 per cent in 1985 to 75 per cent in 2005.
Major public works projects included the extension of the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Yamaguchi
Prefecture in 1975, and the completion of the Chugoku
Expressway in 1983. Two main dams were constructedby 1984 and 1988. Sixty-seven small dams to control
debris flow were built with the planned total capacityof sand storage at 680,000m3. A total of 75 irrigationwater intake dams were installed. The amount of soil
and sand deposited in these dams was estimated atroughly 570,000m3.
Land reclamation between 1947 and 1969 of 340ha forfarmland had a direct impact on the tidal flats and sea
grass fields in Yamaguchi Estuary (Figure 2). Whileseawalls are a necessity to protect against typhoons
and other coastal hazards, they disrupt the seepage ofnutrient and iron enriched water from the forest, andthe increased water agitation from wave reflection off
the walls inhibit settlement of asari and seagrass. As
well, seagrass fields were impacted by the rise in watertemperature by about 1°C during those three decades.
Reflecting these changes, annual fisheries productivity in Yamaguchi Estuary declined from 2,825 tons in
1967 to approximately 1,600 tons in the early 1970s
and recently to 200 tons. The production of short-

Figure 2. Land reclamation area.

necked clams, in particular, declined from 1,500
tons in 1970 to near zero since 1991. Other plausible reasons for the decrease of the clam harvest, otherthan the direct impact of land reclamation, include:(1) decrease of nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe), (2) sedimentation of fineparticles on the tidal flats, (3) increased feeding on
the clams by eagle rays due to the effects of climatechange, (4) collection of mother shells in the Suo Sea.
As for (1), despite the increase in the number ofurban households connected to the public seweragesystem, the concentration of N and P in downstream
areas of the Fushino River tended to increase. It isnotable, however, that the concentration of N and P
in the western part of the Suo Sea clearly decreased
from 1984. Regarding to (2), it should be noted thatchanges in cultivation methods, such as in paddy
field irrigation systems, have contributed to increased
runoff of fine soil particles; at the same time, thorough flood control measures have led to the decreaseof sand supply to the coast. In any case, the mediansize of soil particles in Naka-gata and Minami-gataFigure 3. Time series of land reclamation andzostera (eelgrass) coverage in ha, fisheries landingsin Suo Nada in the prefecture, fishery production in
the Yamaguchi Estuary and Total Organic Nitrogenand Phosphate into Suo Nada. Note how theincrease in reclaimed land area and associateddecrease in eelgrass fields was shortly followed by
the increase in nutrient loading. For a short period,
this eutrophication enhanced primary production
and compensated for the loss of eelgrass fields interms of fishery production, however, the decreasing
trend has then dominated since about 1985. The
decreasing trend in eelgrass field coverage has
been reversed since 1990, but so far the recovery ismodest compared to the coverage in 1950.

has decreased, respectively from 0.28 and 0.63mm
in 1988 to 0.11 and 0.27mm in 2003. Field observations of water quality examining suspended solid (SS)and chlorophyll a (Chl-a) levels at the river mouth
were conducted on the same day of August in 1982
and 2004. The results clearly showed that both the
Chl-a and SS levels had declined. This has significantly deteriorated the conditions for feeding by
short-necked clams, both in quantity and quality,
in those 20 years.
Figure 3 shows the relationship between the decline infisheries productivity and changes in human activities
in the last 50 years. The line with solid black circles
indicates fisheries productivity in the Yamaguchi
Estuary, while the line with open white circles indicates productivity levels in the Suo Sea. The first thing
we notice is the decline in the area of sea grass fields
as the area of reclaimed land increases. In 1952, sea
grass fields occupied 720ha and the primary production there was estimated at 9,500t C/year. However, in
1978, sea grass fields had dwindled to 30ha and almost
disappeared in 1990.

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 9: Tidal Flat Restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary

Fisheries productivity in Yamaguchi illustrated boththe possibility of a temporary increase in catch witheutrophication, and the following decrease in ecosystem productivity linked to decline in biodiversity. Itshould be noted that eagle ray predation damage as
an effect of global warming appeared only recently,
in 2002.

Restoring the Fushino River tidal
flats environment
Yamaguchi Prefecture established a committee todiscuss environmental management of its river basins,
resulting in a proposal in March 2003 entitled “The
Concept of Sound Watershed Development”, taking theFushino River basin as a model. Among various measures to be promoted, it focused on restoration of thenatural environment of tidal flats and sea grass fields
in river estuaries, where the impact of human activities on the river basin is concentrated. Then, in August
2004, the Committee for Tidal Flats Restoration of
Fushino River Estuary was inaugurated under the
management of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The goal of
the 60-member committee is “restoration of satoumi”.
In 2004, Yamaguchi Prefecture embarked on a pilot
study aimed at improving the soil quality of its tidal
flats. In particular, one objective was to soften thesoil surface to make it a more hospitable habitat forthe short-necked clam larvae, and favour more aerobic conditions in the sediment. In the muddy soil of
Naka-gata, ploughing was conducted using cultivator
machines, mixing soil, turning over the sediment andcrushing oyster shell deposits. In both cases, either
crushed pebbles or dredged sand were added to thesurface layers (Figure 4). We observed a certain effectof these efforts on the survival of short-necked clams
until October, probably because of the improvementof particle size and surface roughness.

80

Density of clam larger than 2cm (Shells/m2)

The line with x-marks shows the loading of N and P,
converted to TOD, flowing in the Suo Sea, including that from the island of Kyushu. Comparing theselevels with fisheries productivity levels, we can see thatduring the 1970s and early 1980s, the nutrient load
mainly from adjacent industrial cities caused eutrophication, which in turn enhanced primary production
by phytoplankton and mitigated the impact of land
reclamation on fisheries in the Suo Sea and Yamaguchi
Estuary. However, from 1985 to the present, fisheries
productivity levels have declined significantly.

300

Ridge + Net
Ridge without net
Ridge with net
Control without net
Control with net

250
200

Net only

150
100
50

Ridge only

0
Apr.

May

June

July

Aug. Sept. Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Jan.

2007

Figure 4. The site of a pilot study improving soil in
Nakagata.

Figure 6. Planting the seedlings of zostera marina
on the tidal flat of an offshore site in Minami-gata.

In the sandy tidal flats of Minami-gata, local volunteers tilled the soil by hand. This activity has beenongoing twice a year. Approximately 150 people haveparticipated on each occasion (Figure 5). In the past,when short-necked clams were abundant, a popular
activity with local communities was to till the tidal
flat mud at low tide in search of short-necked clams.
This seasonal activity presumably made the mud more
hospitable for short-necked clam larvae and could
then be seen as one example of traditional satoumi
practice, where the customary use of local resources
contributed to sustaining it by making the coast more
hospitable to the species it exploited. After 50 years ofsevere environmental degradation, however, the shortnecked clam is scarce, offering little incentive to till thetidal flats. The bonds between the community and thiscoastal ecosystem have also weakened; clam-gather-ing, a pleasant pastime that once brought people into
hands-on contact with the tidal flats and the naturalenvironment close at hand, is no longer popular. In
this case, our limited-scale attempt at satoumi revival
for the purpose of conservation was made possible by
the hard manual labour of “environment volunteers”.

Figure 5. Ploughing the tidal flat mud, making
ridges parallel or orthogonal to the wave
direction using a shovel and plough. The goalof the local community here is to favour aerobic
conditions and larval deposition in the sediment(see text for details).

Finally, in order to prevent predation damage by eagle
rays, we have been protecting the clams by covering
the tidal flats with 9mm-mesh fishnets since 2007.
To date, we have observed that net covering is effective in improving survival rates, and tilling the soil
results in a slight increase in the body weight of theclams. These efforts could be seen as specie-targetedbiodiversity conservation. While conservation onland has long included this kind of active measures(e.g. reintroduction of species that had been exterminated from an ecosystem), at sea it has mostly been
limited to decreasing or temporarily halting catch.
That is, curtailing human interaction and letting nature
recover by itself. Unfortunately this may not be sufficient, or take a very long time, in severely degradedenvironments. Available data suggests that the active
conservation measures reported here, including habitat construction, mud ploughing and protection frompredators, were at least moderately successful.
Concerning the restoration of sea grass fields, theFisheries Promotion Division, Yamaguchi Prefecture,
started a project to restore eelgrass (Zostera marina)
from 2002. From 2004, local resident participation wasincorporated into the program. In early periods, transplanting of the shoots was tried together with sowing(Figure 6). However, sowing has been conducted
mainly, considering the efficiency. We participate in

Figure 7. Effect of soil improvement works in
Minami-gata on the density of short-necked clamin 2007, after a net with a 9mm mesh size covered
part of the plowed area (100m2 out of 2,250m2) andafter making ridges in May 2007.

parts of the project, such as collecting seeds in May
and preparing the mud flats for sowing the seed in
November, following instruction provided by experts
from the Fishery Research Center. As a result, the areaof sea grass fields had recovered to 142ha as of 2008.
As mentioned above, our activities over the past six
years are, in a modest way, mostly successful, as indicated by the results shown in Figure 7. Given thecomplicated structural changes that took place over
50 years, however, what can be achieved in rather shortterms by mainly volunteers who are only just periodically participating in such activities is necessarily
very limited so far.

Research workshops andenvironmental networks in theestuary
In 2009, 10 workshops on biological resources in the
Yamaguchi Estuary were organised. Several important
points were confirmed at these networking events.
The first was the importance of the two-dimensional
ecosystem networks of river areas. The importanceof the continuity between the forest and the estuary
along the river axis has long been recognized, although
the actual situation is far from satisfactory. However,more attention needs to be paid to the cross-sectional
continuities between river channels and paddy fields,
waterways, ponds, flood control basins and wetlands,
as shown in Figure 8. In Japan, as in other countries
based on rice culture, paddies and agricultural waterways once played an important role as spawning andnursery grounds for fish. Now such functions have81

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 9: Tidal Flat Restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary

networks that nurtured the production of larvae have
weakened, so that it may not be easy to achieve effective outcomes for restoration efforts such as ours in
the Yamaguchi Estuary. Although the spatial scale ofsea grass restoration is much smaller, the situation is
the same.

FInAl rEmArks AnD FuturE ProsPECts

FIgurE 8. Two-dimensional schematic diagram of
the river basin ecosystem.

disappeared due to the modernization of agriculture
and the reinforcement of riverbanks for flood control.
Even during times of flooding, fish are unable to moveinto wetlands and rice paddies. As well, in urban areas
the once natural waterways hosted various organisms.
These waterways have often been replaced by concrete
storm-water drains where little organic life can survive.
Ecosystems in urban areas have become extremely
depleted. Herbicides and other chemicals have also
affected the ecosystems adjacent to the areas where
they are used, and such chemicals may also indirectly
affect life in the tidal flats. The flow of Fe and othernutrients through the ecological food web must be
studied further.
Another point is the importance of the networks ofshort-necked clam larvae or of eelgrass seed supply
in the sea area. According to the National ResearchInstitute of Fisheries and Environment of the InlandSea, short-necked clam larvae float on the tide for
two weeks. During that time, the larvae that hatch
in the Yamaguchi Estuary are carried offshore by thetide, to Onoda in the fall and the Bungo peninsula in
the spring. Larvae that hatch off the shore of Onoda
are carried westward towards Shimonoseki in the falland southwest to the Buzen coast (on Kyushu) or evenoffshore Bungo in the spring. As short-necked clam
resources have declined overall in the Suo Sea, the82This report presents efforts being made to revive thetradition of satoumi in the Fushino river estuary andadjacent coastal areas. While we would emphasize thatthe good will of a few local volunteers is not sufficient
to combat the effects of 50 years of environmental
degradation, it is worth reporting that without waiting for an ideal conservation-focussed management
framework, there is still room for immediate, positive
action to restore the tidal flat environment’s biodiversity by concerned local communities. In this casestudy, this included human modification of the environment in the form of actions such as manually tilling
mud in tidal flats.

FurthEr rEADIng
Fisheries Agency of Japan. 1987. Report on Impact
Assessment of the Reformation of Coast and Bottom in
Shallow Sea Areas.
2008 fiscal year program CSR Toyota Motor Corp. 2009.
Report on Restoration of the Tidal Flats and Biological
Resources in Yamaguchi Estuary.
“Wataridori no kosaten he yokoso [Welcome to the
Migrant Birds’ Crossroads: Yamaguchi Prefectural
Kirarahama Nature Park], Yacho zukan, tsukibetsu[Chart of Wild Birds (by month)]. ” [online] Available
at: <http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~kirara-h/shizenjyoho/
tukibetu/tukibetu.htm> (in Japanese).

From the perspective of biodiversity management,
bringing this locally successful initiative in biodiversity
conservation practice to the level of larger, policydriven action will be a key challenge. Furthermore,examination of the ecosystem changes in the estuary
and catchment areas, including changes in agricultural practice, suggest that it will be difficult to restore
a fully healthy, productive ecosystem in the Yamaguchi
Estuary without simultaneously achieving recovery ofagriculture, forestry and fisheries practices that arefriendly to the environment. Although this was not thefocus of this short presentation, the authors believe it
will be difficult to revive satoumi without due consideration for aspects such as higher self-sufficiency offood and timber, challenges to the still-prevailing practice of single-minded pursuit of short-term economic
efficiency, and changes in biodiversity-related societal
behaviours and philosophy.

ACknowlEDgEmEnts
The authors would like to thank the people of
Yamaguchi Prefecture, the Committee for Tidal Flats
Restoration, EMECS, the presenters of the ResearchWorkshops ’09 for their active cooperation, and the
Toyota Motor Corporation for its financial supportof the workshops.

83CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 9: Tidal Flat Restoration in the Yamaguchi Estuary

Box 5: Ecological links between terrestrial and coastal areas in the yura river
estuary and the tango sea
Yoh Yamashita, Maizuru Fisheries Research Station, Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University
A central aspect in satoumi is the coupling of coastal marine and terrestrial ecosystems in the watershed. Through these links,
humans have had a profound influence on marine coastal ecosystems and biodiversity through their on-land activities. Adequate
knowledge of land-sea interaction will be crucial to the management of biodiversity in coastal seas. The research summarised here
provides an illustration of these interactions in the case of the Yura River in Kyoto Prefecture, with field surveys of nutrients, carbon
and various other constituents that provide insight into the nature of the land-sea ecosystem tied together by rivers.
In Kyoto Prefecture, commercial landings from coastal fisheries have shown a continuous decrease after a peak in 1988 (106,000 tons) and is currently only about 12 per centof the peak year (12,400 tons in 2005; see Figure 1). Four possible causes have been cited
for this decline: climate change, overfishing, deterioration of the coastal environment,
and deterioration of the natural links between terrestrial areas, rivers and the coastal
environment. In coastal areas, the latter in particular is considered to play an importantrole in the decline of biological resources. In addition, unusual ecological phenomena
such as the appearance of massive numbers of jellyfish are thought to be associatedwith human activities.
The Ashiu Forest Research Station and the Maizuru Fisheries Research Station of Kyoto
University’s Field Science Education and Research Center (FSER) are both located near
the Yura River, and scientists in marine and terrestrial ecology have been collaborating
there in the study of the ecological links between terrestrial areas in the Yura River watershed and the coastal waters of the Tango Sea (Figure 2). The research is basically testing
the hypothesis that the decrease of aquatic biological productivity and diversity can be
attributed to the disruption of ecological links between forests and coastal waters. The
main disruptions are thought to be: (1) sediment flux (increased flow of fine sediment
into coastal waters from poorly managed and maintained forests, paddy fields, and irrigation reservoirs); (2) fluxes and consumption of organic matter; (3) water flow; (4) nutrient
flux (disturbances in the balance of such nutrients as C, N, P, Si, Fe from terrestrial areas;
artificial control of river water discharge for human activities); and (5) animal migration(obstruction of aquatic animal ontogenetic migrations by dams and drainage improvement programs of concreting the banks of the river etc.).
Studies have been conducted of particulate and dissolved nutrients, including dissolved
iron and humic matter, input to the river system, the primary production mechanismsof the river and coastal waters, the influx and interaction between river discharge andsea water, and the utilization of matter of terrestrial origin by planktonic and benthic
organisms. Figure 3 shows an example of composition of anthropogenic matter, phytoplankton and benthic algae in particulate organic carbon (POC) collected in the river
between ca. 20km and 120km from the river mouth, areas not influenced by sea water.
It is notable that phytoplankton production drastically increased in the Ono dam reservoir at midstream. In addition, organic matter produced in the forests was not clearly
detected, suggesting that it may be mainly transported during flooding.
From early summer to late autumn, sea water enters the river from the bottom layer
and forms a long brackish estuarine zone up to about 20km from the river mouth due
to low river discharge and increase of the sea surface height during this season. In theriver estuary, a high primary production layer occurs in the boundary layer between the
freshwater and the seawater areas where marine phytoplankton utilizes nutrients transported in the freshwater originally from terrestrial areas (Figure 4).

84

FIgurE 1. Annual change of fisheries
landings in Kyoto Prefecture.

Miyazu	  Tango	
  Sea	  MFRS	
  Fukuchiyama	
  Ayabe	  In midstream and downstream areas, benthic organisms utilize terrestrial organic matter(carbon), but from the shallow coastal to offshore areas the benthos community primarily use marine products (Figure 5). Terrestrial matter contains high amounts of refractorycompounds such as cellulose and lignin, which are difficult to digest and assimilate bymost coastal benthic animals which do not have digestive enzymes capable of breaking down the glycosidic bonds of cellulose into oligosaccharides (Antonio et al. 2010a).
Other studies suggest that the smaller consumers such as meiobenthos and bacteria inthe coastal sediment can consume terrestrial organic matter.
The straightening of rivers and the construction of concrete banks for flood prevention
have resulted in the loss of freshwater pools and sections of rapids typical of a naturally winding river, sections that are precisely the habitats where the freshwater benthic
community consumes terrestrial matter. Such constructions shorten and streamline therivers, meaning that terrestrial organic matter is transported much more quickly to coastal
waters and increasing the likelihood that the decomposition of accumulated terrestrialorganic matter by bacteria will take place further downstream, ultimately resulting inoxygen depletion in coastal areas.
The collaborative structure that links research facilities studying forests, rivers and coastal
ecosystems provides exciting new research opportunities for graduate students. They
can expand the scope of their research from a limited ecological unit to encompass thelinkages between several ecological units with an interdisciplinary interest. We have developed an education program of field exercise courses on “The Forest to Ocean Linkages”
focusing on the Yura River and the Tango Sea. In this programme students study the
structure of forests, water quality and changes in the structure of the aquatic faunacommunity from upstream to downstream/coastal waters through field observationand sampling (Figure 6). This field-based educational program will also provide us withmany new perspectives on both education and research.

River	  discharge	  	
  Nutrients	

Produc3on	
Oceanic	
  Phytoplankton	
Sea	
  water	FIgurE 4. The primary production
system in the brackish water from rivermouth to ca. 20km upstream (Kasai etal. 2010).

FIgurE 5. Per cent composition (%)
of potential food sources in the diet ofbenthic communities. Shallow coast
5-10m, deep coast 30-60m and offshore
100-150m in depth (Antonio et al. 2010b).

AFRS	
  

FIgurE 2. Satellite photograph of theYura River watershed (1880km2). The
Yura River, with a total length of about
146 km, flows into the Tango Sea, thewestern part of Wakasa Bay. MFRS
(Maizuru Fisheries Research Station),
AFRS (Ashiu Forest Research Station).

FIgurE 6. Photos of students in the fieldresearch education programs.

references

May	

500

FSERC is planning from 2011 to conduct a large-scale thinning experiment of artificial
forests neglected by poor forest management in the upstream basin of the Yura River.
In addition to providing field study material for students, we expect this experimentto yield valuable data on the effectiveness of managing under-used forests for forest,
river and coastal ecosystems conservation (Figure 7). This will form the basis of practical options for effectively managing watershed forests in the changing socio-economic
setting of Japan, which is recognized as one of the key challenges for conserving biodiversity in coastal areas.

400
300

Antonio, M. S., M. Ueno, Y. Kurikawa, K. Tsuchiya, A. Kasai, H. Toyohara, Y. Ishihi, H. Yokoyama,
and Y. Yamashita. 2010a. “Consumption of terrestrial organic matter by estuarine molluscs
determined by analysis of their stable isotopes and cellulase activity.” Estuarine, Coastal and
Shelf Science 86: 401-407.

200
100
0
( µg L-1 )
300

Nov.	

200

Anthropogenic matter	Phytoplankton	
Attached algae	
	

100
0

1

Upstream	

2

3	
 4

5	
 6 	
7	
 8
Stn.	

	
9 	
 10 11	 		

Downstream	

FIgurE 3. Composition ofanthropogenic matter, phytoplankton
and benthic microalgae in particulateorganic carbon (POC) collected in theYura River between ca. 20 and 120km
from the river mouth in 2006 (Suzuki etal. unpublished).

Antonio, M.S., A. Kasai, M. Ueno, N. Won, Y. Ishihi, H. Yokoyama, and Y. Yamashita. 2010b. “Spatial
variation in organic matter utilization by benthic communities from Yura River-Estuary tooffshore of Tango Sea.” Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 86: 107-117.
Kasai, A., Y. Kurikawa, M. Ueno, D. Robert, and Y. Yamashita. 2010. “Hydrodynamics and primary
production in the Yura Estuary, Japan.” Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 86: 408-414.

FIgurE 7. Expected effects (compared
to non-thinned forest) of the thinning
experiment. Arrows indicate theexpected effect in the longer term (e.g.
top thinning is expected to result firstin a slight increase in nutrient input torivers, followed by recovery).

85

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 10: Okinawa: Effective Conservation Practices From Satoumi in a Coral Reef Ecosystem

Case study

okinawa: eFFeCtive Conservation PraCtiCes
From satoumi in a Coral reeF eCosystem

10shinichiro kakuma1 and masahito kamimura2
1 Yaeyama Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Promotion Center, Okinawa Prefectural Government. 438-1 Maezato, Ishigaki, Okinawa, 907-0002
Japan. E-mail: kakumsh@pref.okinawa.lg.jp
2 WWF Coral Reef Conservation and Research Centre, 118 Shiraho Ishigaki Okinawa, 907-0242 Japan. E-mail: kamimura@wwf.or.jp

ABstrACt
The coral reef ecosystems of Okinawa are the southernmost case study represented in this report. As
with other reef peoples, those of the local communities of Shiraho and Sekisei lagoon have, over the
centuries, developed a satoumi culture intimately linked to the reef ecosystem and adapted to an abundant but sustainable use of its resources. The biodiversity that developed in this traditional equilibriumis threatened in ways similar to that of other human-influenced coral reefs of the world’s oceans. Thiscase study reports on a number of good practices that emerged in response to these threats.
While a consensus was reached among fishers on the establishment of marine protected areas, “passive”
measures based on curtailing human interaction with the environment were found to be insufficient.
They were then complemented by “active” measures involving conservation-purposed manual labourfor protection of the environment. These included controlling populations of reef-damaging crown-ofthorns starfish, constructing biodiversity-enhancing habitats of traditional stone fishing weirs (ishihimi)
and propagating mozuku seaweed. Preliminary data on the effectiveness of these actions for biodiversity is encouraging.
For management purposes, the satoumi tradition supported a discourse adequate to engage local communities in conservation efforts. The active conservation work undertaken may be of interest to managersof ecosystems where there is considerable human interaction with the environment and a restrictiononly approach does not suffice to conserve biodiversity. In this case study, these practices stemmed
from the view that careful, conservation-purposed measures to restore and enhance the coastal environment by human hands can provide positive results for biodiversity and sustainability, the central
hypothesis of satoumi.

IntroDuCtIon

by local people; “local rules” refers herein to resourceuse regulations that are autonomously determined
The ecosystems targeted in this study were the coral by local communities. Okinawa’s satoumi feature ino,
reefs in the areas of Shiraho and Sekisei lagoons or shallow, calm waters located between the offshorein the Yaeyama district of Okinawa Prefecture coral reefs, where the waves break, and the shore. Since(Figure 1). Essential aspects of Okinawa satoumi ancient times, those who fish for a living have collected
include commons and local rules (Nakajima 2008). their catch in the outer seas, while village residents“Commons” are resources that are shared and used relied on the fishery resources of the ino inside thereefs as commons, and have led a semiagrarian-, semi-fishing-reliant lifestyle(Tamanoi 1995). This commons-type usage
is practised even today, particularly in the
Yaeyama	  outer islands. On the other hand, as many
sedentary resources are subject to common:	
  MPA	
  fishery rights, members of Fishing
Cooperative Associations (FCAs) have theright, in principle, to harvest or capture
Sekisei	  Lagoon	
  them. This has greatly complicated the
Shiraho	
  relationship between traditional customs
regarding the ino and the fishery rights
system. Legal and management aspects
must hence be considered, in addition totechnical issues, for the enhancement of
productivity and biodiversity in the ino.
FIgurE 1. Composite photographs showing the areas
For this reason, the local people, who are
discussed in this case study: the Sekisei Lagoon, Shiraho, andthe most closely involved with the ino,
the Marine Protected Area in Yaeyama.
must create local rules and observe them.

86

87

CBD Technical Series No. 61

So-called red soil pollution (akatsuchi osen) is a grave
environmental problem in Okinawa (Omija 1987).
Massive runoff of the red-coloured soil found on
Okinawa, Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands has increased,
one of the reasons being coastal development. The redsoil does not contain toxic components but damage
results from the sheer quantities that flow into coastal
waters, silting over the reefs. Even small quantities are
sufficient to stress the coral, which secretes mucus in
response. Clouding of seawater by red soil, moreover,
adversely affects the photosynthesis of zooxanthella,an alga that has a symbiotic relationship with thereef. Furthermore, coral larvae cannot settle to theocean floor if it is covered in red soil sediment. Red
soil pollution affects not only coral, it also has a direct
impact on fisheries and aquaculture.
The guiding principle of red soil pollution countermeasures is preventative measures at the pollution
source. In 1995, Okinawa Prefecture instituted the
Okinawa Prefecture Red Soil Runoff Prevention
Ordinance. Red soil pollution associated with development has apparently decreased due to this ordinance,
but runoff from farmland and other areas continues.
For this reason, agricultural management-related
measures must be strengthened.
Growth of Acropora corals was found to be poor inmarine areas where there were high concentrationsof nutrients (Omija et al. 2003). Coral reef ecosystems have adapted to nutrient-poor environments,
so the influx of excessive land-based nutrients is aserious problem. Although the direct effects of the88

Deterioration of the coral reefs in the Yaeyama district
continues. Not only did the area suffer from the extensive coral bleaching that occurred worldwide in 1998,
it experienced more coral bleaching in 2007 on ascale that surpassed the 1997 levels, with reports thatapproximately half the coral had died. Damage caused
by major typhoons, the runoff of red soil and excessive
nutrients from terrestrial areas also had a significant
impact. The predation of corals by crown-of-thorns
starfish has recently become the greatest threat.
Catches of coral reef fish species such as Lethrinidae,
Serranidae, Scaridae, Caesionidae and Siganidae havedecreased by half in the last 15 years. Not only havecatches declined, catch per unit effort (CPUE) has
fallen and resources have diminished (Figure 2, Otaet al. 2007). Although over-fishing is probably themain cause, coral reef degradation is also thought tobe responsible. For this reason, there is a pressing needfor fishery resource management, including in theform of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
Thus, the conservation of coral reefs and the management of fishery resources are central issues in
Okinawa’s satoumi. While “passive” measures, suchas curtailing excessive nutrient input from terrestrial
areas and imposing catch limits, are strategic pillarsof conservation efforts, they do not suffice, even in thecase where a consensus can be built for their signifi-	
  Catch	
  

600	
  

	
  CPUE	
  
500	
  

35	
  
CPUE/Day	
  Man	  The growth of the livestock industry in Okinawa
increased nutrient loading from the effluent of cattle,
pig and other stock farms. In 2004, The Law on
Promoting Proper Management and Use of Livestock
Excreta was amended to prohibit the open-air storage of manure. Farmers are now obliged to lay down
concrete to prevent faeces and manure from percolating underground, and to cover such material witha roof or tarpaulin. Enforcement includes fines of up
to 500,000 yen. However, although countermeasures
have been strengthened, the handling of manure is
still inadequate at some farms. Another problem thatmust be addressed is nutrient-rich urban household
effluents.

40	
  

700	
  

400	
  

30	
  
300	
  
200	
  

25	
  

100	
  
20	
  

0	
  
1989	
  
1990	
  
1991	
  
1992	
  
1993	
  
1994	
  
1995	
  
1996	
  
1997	
  
1998	
  
1999	
  
2000	
  
2001	
  
2002	
  
2003	
  
2004	
  
2005	
  
2006	
  
2007	
  
2008	
  
2009	
  

Some of the anthropogenic influences of greatest
impact include increase in soil runoff, excessive inputof nutrients and chemical substances, land reclamation, dredging, illegal harvesting of coral, fisheries,
aquaculture, and excessive tourism. Powerful natural
influences include typhoons, massive coral bleaching,predation damage by crown-of-thorns starfish andshellfish, and diseases (Kakuma 2009). Coral bleaching
and the increasing magnitude of typhoons are associated with climate change, and it is possible as well thatcrown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and the spread of
diseases are the indirect impact of human activities.
These phenomena might be viewed as anthropogenic
influences as well. The following is a summary of two
disturbance factors: the problems of runoff of red soil
and excessive nutrients.

nutrient influx on coral reefs are not fully understood,high nutrient conditions are known to favour phytoplankton development, which clouds the water, andthe excessive nutrients results in increased macroalgae growth as well. As algae and coral compete with
one another, the fast-growing algae propagate, and thecoral reefs go into decline.

Coastal	  Fish	  Catchm	
  Threats to the ecosystem

Case Study 10: Okinawa: Effective Conservation Practices From Satoumi in a Coral Reef Ecosystem

Figure 2. Time series of catch and catch per unit
effort of coastal fish (after Ota et al. 2007), showing
a steady decline since 1989.

cant expansion. As described below, “active” measuresinvolving manual labour for the purpose of regenerating coral and eradicating the crown-of-thorns starfish
have proved to be invaluable complements to passive
conservation measures.

Activities and their outcomes

Shiraho Lagoon

The village of Shiraho on Ishigaki Island looks out overa 12km stretch of coral reef. The ino within this reef isa central element of the local community’s culture andlivelihood. Local inhabitants consume a wide variety offishery resources from the ino waters, and festivals andreligious rituals are part of what could be described asa coral reef cultural-sphere lifestyle that is intimately
connected to the sea. The historically semi-agrarian,semi-fishing, subsistence lifestyle of the villagers had alight environmental footprint and the natural environment was sufficiently resilient. Human use of nature’s
resources here, therefore, did not significantly infringeon the biodiversity of the reef. Inasmuch as the coastal
seas were common village property since the time of
the Ryukyu Kingdom (15th to 19th century), and as
the local community there developed an intimate andsustainable relationship with the sea, they could well
be called a satoumi.
The relationship between the people of the village andthe sea has weakened, however, with the modernization that took place after the end of World War II, thereversion of Okinawa to Japan (1972) and the recent
assimilation of Okinawa into mainland Japaneseculture. The increased runoff of red soil from construction sites and the influx of household effluents into thesea have increased the burden on the environment of
human presence on the island. In environmental monitoring surveys conducted over the 10 years since theWorld Wildlife Fund of Japan Coral Reef Conservation
and Research Centre was established in the village,
fixed monitoring points on Shiraho Reef have revealed
that the amount of coral has significantly decreased(WWFJ 2010). The shadow of that decrease has been
felt on the biodiversity of the Shiraho ino, once known
as “the sea that teems with fish” (sakana waku umi).
Meanwhile, in 2006, a charter setting down seven basic
policies for village development was established at a
general meeting of community members held at the
Shiraho Community Centre. As one of its basic policies, the Charter advocates “protecting our coral reef
environment, which is one of the best in the world, andleading lives that are based on nature”. Thus, the whole
village has started working to conserve the biodiversity and to manage the resources of the sea directlyin front of the village in a sustainable manner. This
Charter was enacted because it had become difficult tomaintain village norms and pass down culture on thestrength of oral tradition alone. In addition to passing on traditional culture to the next generation, theCharter also represents a basic stance vis-à-vis local
rules. The local community in Shiraho thus positioned
itself to maintain and manage the satoumi within thesphere of its regional autonomy, and is using theseapproaches as a platform for “cultural transmission”
and “learning experiences”.
The Shiraho Coral Reef Management Council, established in 2005, plays a central role in coral reef
conservation and resource regeneration activities
conducted by the local community. The coral reefsof Shiraho are viewed as commons. Thus, in addition
to fishers and tour guides, residents of the villages,
including agricultural and livestock farmers, participate and cooperate in actions to invigorate the region
through the conservation and sustainable use of
the reef. In 2006, the Council developed the “SelfDetermined Rules for Coral Reef Tour Guides” and“Dear Visitors to Shiraho…” (a collection of instructions on tourism etiquette) and restored the traditional
ishihimi (stone fishing weirs) (Figure 3; Kamimura2007). In 2007, the Council launched a program forplanting shell flower (getto, a species of ginger; Alpinia
speciosa) around fields as a means of preventing redsoil from flowing into the sea.

89

Case Study 10: Okinawa: Effective Conservation Practices From Satoumi in a Coral Reef Ecosystem

No.	
  of	
  Fish	  Species	  

CBD Technical Series No. 6160	  Others	  Labridae	
  

50	
  

Before	  Ishihimi	  Acanthuridae	  Pomacentridae	
  ChaetodonCdae	
  

40	
  
30	
  
20	
  
10	
  
0	
  
2006	
   2006	
   2007	
   2007	
   2008	
   2008	
   2009	
   2009	
   2010	  spring	
   fall	
   spring	
   fall	
   spring	
   fall	
   spring	
   fall	
   spring	
  Figure 3. Photograph of a traditional stone
fishing weir (ishihimi) in Shiraho. Ishihimi has beenshown to provide habitat for many species andcontribute to local biodiversity.

Figure 4. Fish species counts near Ishihimi after
construction and in the five subsequent years,
suggesting a positive effect of Ishihimi on local fishbiodiversity (WWFJ 2009).

In 2009, the Council embarked on a stock enhancement project, restocking 7,000 giant clam (Tridacna
crocea) juveniles cultured in a hatchery. A survey
conducted one year later revealed that the averagesurvival rate was 43 per cent, indicating that the project
could be considered a successful first attempt. The aimof restocking the clams is not to harvest them, but toincrease the resources of the surrounding area. The
clams will be protected and nurtured for approximately
four years, so that they will spawn. This is one example
of increasing productivity through human interaction.

by more efficient net fishing techniques, this method
had almost sunk into obscurity. Recently, however, thetechnique has been reconsidered for its value for environmental education and interest to tourists, and thus
a movement has emerged to revive this fishing method.
Ishihimi do not merely function as fishing infrastructure; they also enhance biodiversity as the crevicesof the piled up rocks create habitats for a variety oforganisms. The algae that grow densely on the rocks
attract sea life that feeds on it, which in turn causes
fish species to increase in the area. A study conductedby WWF Japan confirmed that in the ishihimi areas,shellfish and fish species have increased (Figure 4;
Figure 5; WWFJ 2009).

The use of ishihimi is another example of “enhancing
productivity and biodiversity through human interaction”. Ishihimi are the infrastructure of an ancientfishing method where rocks are piled up in walls on
the shore or in shallow areas of the coral reef in order
to use the tides to catch fish (Tawa 2006). Replaced

Figure 5. Species count near Ishihimi after
construction and in the five subsequent years,
suggesting a positive effect of Ishihimi on thediversity of mollusca (WWFJ 2009).

90

Sekisei Lagoon

The Ministry of the Environment has proposed an
implementation program based on the Law for the
Promotion of Nature Restoration and is conducting
nature restoration initiatives in accordance with thislegislation. One of the main projects is a coral reef
restoration project in which coral larvae settled on
special ceramic devices. These are then replanted tocarefully selected marine locations on a priority basis(Naha Nature Conservation Office, Ministry of theEnvironment 2007).

Predations of crown-of-thorns starfish

Starting in the 1970s and continuing through the
1980s, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks occurred
throughout Okinawa, severely damaging the corals.
Eradication projects failed to protect the corals, andthe objective now is not to kill masses of this starfish,
but rather to protect the precious corals. Conservation
areas of greatest importance have been designated foreach marine area, and in these locations, the efforts forthorough eradication are concentrated there (Okinawa
Prefecture Nature Conservation Division 2004).
In the 1980s, the coral of Yaeyama marine areas was
also devastated by predations of crown-of-thorns
starfish. The coral recovered afterwards, but anotheroutbreak occurred around 2008. Eradication efforts(mainly by fishers and diving associations) are underway, with 65,000 starfish killed in 2008 (20 times thenumber killed in 2007), and 96,000 killed in 2009
(Figure 6). The basic eradication policy in Yaeyama
is to focus extermination efforts on priority marine
areas. Nevertheless, the marine areas of Yaeyama arevast, so focusing on areas of high priority is no easy

Local restoration activities

The Sekisei Lagoon Nature Restoration Committee,
on which serve local residents, researchers, marine
business owners, representatives of local and national
government organizations and other individuals fromthe Yaeyama area, was established in 2006 to deliberate
on ways of protecting and restoring the coral reef. The
main secretariat is in the Ministry of the Environment.
The activities of the committee are principally aimed
at reef conservation and regeneration. However, theSekisei Lagoon Nature Restoration Project Master Plan
describes the vision for the Sekisei Lagoon as “schoolsof green parrotfish, abundant giant clams and fields ofcoral resplendent in all their glory”. Thus, importantgoals of this project include not only the regeneration of the coral, but also the restoration of fisheryresources that inhabit the reef.

Figure 6. Diver participating in the attempt at
mitigating outbreaks of crown-of-thorn starfish,
currently the single largest threat to the coral in
Yaeyama.

task, and this is complicated by the different preferences of fishers and divers. For example, while
fishers may be inclined to eradicate starfish in fish
spawning grounds set in no-take marine reserves,
divers would prefer to protect those locations dottedthroughout the vast Yaeyama marine area that they use
frequently. Currently, eradication programs are being
implemented by the Ministry of the Environment,
the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
and local organizations. In 2009, The Yaeyama
COTS Eradication Committee was established tolink these projects together. Committee members
include national, prefectural and municipal government entities, the Yaeyama FCA and the two Diving
Associations. The committee first selects high priority marine areas, then fishers and divers join forces
to intensively and continuously eradicate the starfish.

Managing fishery resources by way of Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs)

From 1998 to 2002, in order to allow fishery resourcesthat had declined to recover, the fishers of Yaeyama
managed resources through the establishment ofMarine Protected Areas (no-take marine preserves),
targeting Pacific yellowtail emperor (Jp. isofuefuki;
Lethrinus atkinsoni), one of their most importantresources. Furthermore, in 2008, as catches not onlyof Pacific yellowtail emperor, but of all coral reef fish
species fell dramatically after this management was
discontinued, a new fishery management programme
was launched. The cornerstones of this programme
are no-take marine preserves and fish size limitations.
The number of the target fish species increased significantly, not only the Pacific yellowtail emperor, butalso the most important species such as grouper(Serranidae). Fishing was prohibited during the main
spawning season, from April to June. The number of
no-catch marine preserves increased in number—from the four main spawning grounds where theprogramme had been previously implemented, tofive (Figure 1)—expanding the total marine area tofive times its previous size. Past resource managementof the emperor fish had not resulted in a full recovery of the resource. One possible reason for this isthat the no-take marine preserve area was too small.
Increasing the size of the area was significant in achieving restoration.
A feature of this type of resource management is that
not only those who fish for a living, but also recreational fishers and divers, work together to manage the91CBD Technical Series No. 61

resources. In addition to familiarizing people withresource management through posters and mass
media, the fishers hold discussions with diving associations and request divers to cooperate by not enteringno-take marine preserves.
The management of marker buoys and surveillance
are important in terms of giving teeth to the rules
against entry to no-take marine preserves. Surveillanceis currently conducted by fishing cooperative youth
groups. Fishing cooperative regulations have provided
that “trespassers must pay fines equivalent to five times
the value of takings for that day”. Thus in Okinawa,
MPAs function to protect fishery resources throughself-imposed rules set by fishing cooperatives. A
feature of the MPAs that should be noted is that they
do not offer protection throughout the whole year, but
only temporarily, such as during spawning seasons or
periods when juvenile fish congregate (Kakuma 2007).

Other zones (Onna)
In Onna Village on the main island of Okinawa, fishers are engaged in aquaculture of mozuku seaweed
and sea grapes (Jp. umibudo; Caulerpa lentillifera)
and other seaweed for much of their livelihood (OnnaVillage Fishing Cooperative, 2008). Mozuku aquaculture, where nets are stretched over sandy bottom
areas of coral reef, enhances the biodiversity of thoseareas not only by providing homes for small organisms such as shrimp that live among the seaweed,
but also by providing food for fish such as rabbit fish
(Siganidae), which feed on mozuku. The fishers also

Case Study 10: Okinawa: Effective Conservation Practices From Satoumi in a Coral Reef Ecosystempropagate mozuku seedlings, maintaining the waterlevel by enclosing some areas of the tidal flats withsandbags, rocks or other material. This forms seagrassbeds, and the biodiversity of the area is clearly greaterthan in the tidal flats surrounding them (Figure 7). A
further initiative is the planting of iron reinforcing bars
(called “re bars”) in sandy areas for coral aquaculture,
which is conducted on top. If coral grows on the rebars, small fish congregate and the biodiversity of theareas is enhanced. Although some of the new growthis cut off and used for transplants, it is anticipated that
this initiative will also function to supply larvae tothe surrounding areas, as the cultured coral spawns.

Future perspectives
The World Ishihimi Summit was held in Shiraho at
the end of October 2010. Stone fishing weirs are foundoutside Japan, including in Taiwan, South Korea, thePhilippines, France, Spain and Micronesia. Therefore,
this summit was intended to be a conference where
people from all over the world who are associatedwith this fishing gear could share their experienceand discuss the relationship of such approaches to thesatoumi and ecosystem.
Through the Sekisei Lagoon Nature Restoration
Project, in addition to working independently toformulate countermeasures for tackling problems suchas red soil pollution and efflux of excessive nutrientsfrom terrestrial areas, there is also the issue of how
to join forces with fishers to sustain fishery resource
management, which is part of the restoration of thenatural environment.
The crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak in Yaeyama
is expected to continue for several years. Thus, inaddition to securing a budget, fundraising and othervolunteer initiatives are needed to support starfish
population control operations.

Figure 7. Nursery areas of mozuku in Onna.
Mozuku aquaculture contribute to fishers
livelihood, as well as providing habitat for many
species, and appears to enhance local biodiversity.

92

There is wide consensus that coral reef ecosystemconservation is essential and even vital for many
coastal communities around the world, and is a critical aspect of global marine biodiversity preservation
as well. There is, however, considerable debate on thebest way to achieve this, with at one end the view thatnatural wilderness environments, protected from all
human impact, should be sought for the protection of
biodiversity (Bellwood et al. 2004; Pandolfi et al. 2003).
In many cases, this would deprive local communi-ties of essential ecosystem services and often of theirvery livelihood, and would therefore not be a realistic
policy option. It is thus essential to enhance the knowledge base available to conservationists and coastalmanagers in charge of managing biodiversity in suchareas where human interaction with the ecosystem
must remain significant for the foreseeable future. The
satoumi experiences reported here, although still workin progress, illustrate a number of good practices for
managing biodiversity in reef ecosystems under significant anthropogenic influence. It is hoped that they
may be of use for the management of similar ecosystems around the world.

Acknowledgments
The authors express their deepest gratitude to Yoshimi
Higa of the Onna Village Fishing Cooperative forproviding essential help in the preparation of this casestudy.

References
Bellwood, D. R., T. P. Hughes, C. Folke, and M. Nystrom.
2004. “Confronting the Coral Reef Crisis.” Nature 429:
827-32.
Kakuma, Shinichiro. 2007. “Diversity and MultiFunctions of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Coral
Reefs.” Journal of the Japanese Coral Reef Society 8:
91-108.
Kakuma, Shinichiro. 2009. “Engan kaiiki ni okeru
seitaikei hozen to suisan shigen kanri: Okinawaken Yaeyama no sangosho kaiiki o jirei to shite.
[Ecosystem Protection and Management of Fisheries
Resources in Coastal Regions: A Case Study of theCoral Reef Region of Yaeyama, Okinawa Prefecture].”Chiiki gyogyo kenkyu 49 (3): 67-89.
Kamimura, Masahito. 2007. “Ishigakijima Shiraho ‘Kachi’saisei: Jumin shitai no sangosho hozen ni mukete.
[Restoration of Kachi, Traditional Fishing Installationsof the Shiraho Coral Lagoon: Community-based coral
reef conservation and resource management].” Chiiki
kenkyu 3: 175-188.

Rules], Suisan shinko [Fisheries Promotion].” 487: 42-7.
Tokyo: Tokyo Fisheries Promotion Foundation.
Okinawa Prefecture Nature Conservation Division. 2004.
“Onihitode no hanashi [About the Crown-of-Thorns
Starfish].” (2nd Edition).
Onna-son Gyogyo Kyoudou Kumiai [Onna Village
Fishing Cooperative]. 2008. Churaumi (The BountifulSea), Part 3. Okinawa: Onna Village Fishing
Cooperative.
Omija, Tatsuo. 1987. “Okinawa-ken no akatsuchi odaku
no chosa kenkyu (dai 2 ho): akatsuchi odaku kan’i
sokutei-ho to kennai kakuchi ni okeru akatsuchi
nodo.” Okinawa Prefectural Institute of Public HealthReport 20: 100-10.
Omija, Tatsuo, Kazuya Nakasone, Hiroaki Mitsumoto,and Eisaburo Higa. 2003. “Sangosho ni kansuru chosakenkyu hokokusho, 2002. [Monitoring of Terrestrial
Pollutants into Coral Reef in Fiscal 2002].” In ResearchInstitute for Subtropics, 86-102.
Ota, Itaru, Toshihiro Kudo, and Akihiko Ebisawa. 2007.
“Yaeyama kaiiki no engansei gyorui shigen no genjo[The State of Fisheries Resources in the Coastal Areasof the Yaeyama Islands].” In Annual Report of the
Okinawa Prefectural Fisheries and Ocean ResearchCenter in Fiscal 2005, 165-75.
Pandolfi, J.M., R. H. Bradbury, E. Sala, T. P. Hughes, K. A.
Bjorndal, R. C. Cooke, D. McArdle, L. MacClenachan,
M. J. H. Newman, G. Paredes, R. R. Warner, and J. B.
C. Jackson. 2003. “Global Trajectories of the LongTerm Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems.” Science 301:955-58.
Tamanoi, Yoshiro. 1995. “Commons to shite no umi.” In
Commons no umi, edited by Hisashi Nakamura andYoshiyuki Tsurumi, 1-10. Tokyo: Gakuyo Shobo.
Tawa, Masataka. 2006. Ishihimi: Saiko no gyoho. Tokyo:
Hosei University Press.
World Wildlife Fund of Japan. 2009. Umigaki fukugen
ni kansuru kankyo chosa hokokusho [Report on
an Enviromental Survey Regarding Restoration ofStone Fishing Weirs]. Ishigaki: WWF Coral Reef
Conservation and Research Centre.
World Wildlife Fund of Japan. 2010. Junen-kan no kankyo
monitoring chosa kekka ni miru Shiraho sangosho nohensen [Changes in the Shiraho Coral Reef as Seen
through Ten Years of Environmental Monitoring Survey
Findings]. Ishigaki: WWF Coral Reef Conservation
and Research Centre.

Naha Nature Conservation Office, Ministry of theEnvironment. 2007. “Sango yosei chakusho-gu
wo mochiita sango gunshu shufuku manual. [AManual for Coral Reef Restoration Using Ceramic
Implantation Beds].” Naha: Naha Nature Conservation
Office, Ministry of the Environment.
Nakajima, Mitsuru. 2008. “Satoumi’tte nan daro?
Engan’iki no riyo to rokaru ruru no katsuyo. [What Is
a Satoumi: Coastal Fisheries Use and the Uses of Local

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Case Study 10: III. Overview Articles

III. Overview Articles

9495

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Overview Article 1: Satoumi and Institutional Characteristics of Japanese Coastal Fishery Management

overview article

satoumi and institutional CharaCteristiCs oF
JaPanese Coastal Fishery manaGement

1

nobuyuki yagi
The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657 Japan. E-mail: yagi@fs.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp

ABstrACt
A survey conducted by a team from the University of Tokyo identified 1,161 marine protected areas(MPAs) in Japan. Approximately 30 per cent of them take the style of self-imposed community no-takezones. Free-riders of the conservation activities are uncommon, because agreements are usually madeto maximize the benefit to the group of fishers, and each member of the group monitors the compliance status of other members. The government has provided territorial use right for fishers, and thismay have helped in maintaining their self-governance framework. Additional satoumi activities arereported in Japan that are also based on voluntary habitat rehabilitation to improve ecosystem services.

IntroDuCtIon
Seafood harvested in the coastal areas has played asignificant role in fulfilling people’s dietary needs andlivelihoods for many centuries. During and before
the Edo Period (1603-1868) various remote coastal
communities developed their own fishery resource
management rules. The Meiji government, establishedin 1868, rigorously surveyed such traditional local
rules and attempted to incorporate them into the new
government legal system (Takahashi 2007).
Nevertheless, many local rules have been left unlisted
in the government regulations to this day, presumably
because they are too site-specific. Such local rules arestill in force today as self-imposed agreements among
local fishing communities. Various marine protectedareas (MPAs) and other area-based conservation
activities are established as bottom-up self-imposed
instruments of local communities. Such activities are
not fully reported to the government or the public,
therefore the complete picture of the MPAs in Japanis still largely unknown.
A survey was conducted in an effort to grasp a comprehensive picture of MPAs in coastal Japan. The resultsof the survey, as well as the nature and institutional
characteristics of these community-based management
approaches, are discussed in this chapter.

ﬁshery regulations. Specifically, they take the formof no-take zones for certain species. The number ofbottom-up self-imposed MPAs (387 locations in the
study) had not been available for many years in Japan,
and Yagi et al. (2010) was the first publication to showthat approximately 30 per cent of MPAs in Japan arecommunity-based self-imposed no-take zones.
tABlE 1. Number of MPAs in Japan classified
by their management mechanisms. Protections
are provided through various legal instruments.
The six types of MPAs are: marine park areas
established by the natural parks law (managed
by the Ministry of the Environment, hereafterMOE); marine special areas established by the
Nature Conservation Law (managed by MOE);
special protected zones inside the wildlife special
protection areas, which are established by the
wildlife protection and appropriate hunting law(managed by MOE); protected waters establishedby the Act on the Protection of Fishery Resources(managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries, hereafter MAFF); legally binding
no-take zones of aquatic animals and plants
established under the Fishery Act and prefectural
fishery coordinating regulations (managed byMAFF); and no-take zones established throughself-imposed agreements among the members of
the fishery cooperative associations.
Based on Yagi et al. 2010.

CurrEnt stAtus oF mPAs In JAPAn
A team from the University of Tokyo collected information on the location and areal extent of MPAs in
Japan from 2009 to 2010. Some 1,161 MPAs were identified and located (Yagi et al. 2010).
As shown in Table 1, of the 1,161 locations, 1,055(52+616+387) are implemented in conjunction with

96

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

Overview Article 1: Satoumi and Institutional Characteristics of Japanese Coastal Fishery Management

Limited	
  entry	  system	  (licensing	
  scheme	
  &	
  vessel	
  registra4on)	

Area	
  alloca4on	
  and	
  input	
  control	
  (including	  vessel	
  size,	  engine	
  power,	
  gear)	

Total	  Allowable	  Catch	
  
for	
  7	
  species	
  (35%	
  landing	  No	
  Na4onal	
  TAC	
  for	  other	
  species	
  (65%	
  landing	  Top-­‐down	
  quota	  alloca4on	
  to	
  ﬁshery	  organiza4ons	
  and	  regional	
  governments	

BoKom-­‐up	
  &	
  area-­‐based	
  management	
  by	
  local	
  ﬁshery	
  organiza4ons	

volume)	
  volume)	

FIgurE 1. Fishery management measures in Japan.

MPAs managed by the Ministry of the Environment
take a top-down approach where the central government is a major driver for conservation, while
fishery-related MPAs managed by the Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) take abottom-up approach in which informal functions oflocal Fishery Cooperative Associations (FCAs) are
critical.
The total area of MPAs in Japan was not provided
by this study. Information on the possible overlaps
between different types of MPAs, as well as the exact
size of some areas in community-based self-imposed
no-take zones, is missing and this makes an accurate
calculation on the total coverage difficult at this stage(Yagi et al. 2010).

nAturE oF ArEA-BAsED mAnAgEmEnt
In CoAstAl FIshErIEs
The relevance of the number of such no-take zones
is better understood in the context of the fisheries
management system in Japan. Traditional Japanesefishery management systems are based on a limited
entry system and area allocations. The Government’s
licensing scheme limits the number of vessels andentities which can operate fisheries. In coastal Japan,
fishing areas are allocated to FCAs. In many cases,
these area allocations are based on a traditional tenuresystem in managing coastal fishery resources, whichassumes rights-based co-management of resourcesin the community.
The introduction of output control (i.e. setting quotas
for fish harvest) came relatively late in Japan. In 1997,
seven fish species, representing 34 per cent of the98

national landing volume in 2007, were subject to
output control regulations under the Government ofJapan’s Total Allowable Catch (TAC) system. Other
species are still managed using input control methods
that involve limitations on vessel tonnage, horse power,
gear, seasons, and seasons of operation (see Figure 1).
Details of these regulations, which often involve themanagement of no-take zones, are usually decided
and imposed by the members of local FCAs throughtheir regular decision-making processes.
The number of FCAs in Japan was 1,092 as of March
31, 2009, according to the Fisheries Agency of theGovernment of Japan. Many FCAs owned one no-takezone, while other FCAs had two or more and stillothers possessed none. The number of the no-takezones is reasonable, judging from the fact that it
roughly corresponds to the number of FCAs, which
is a local co-management unit of coastal fisheries inJapan (Yagi et al. 2010).
Such zones can be regarded as MPAs. At the seventhmeeting of the Conference of the Parties to theConvention on Biological Diversity (COP 7, 2004),
it was noted that “‘Marine and coastal protected area’means any conﬁned area within or adjacent to themarine environment, together with its overlying waters
and associated ﬂora, fauna, and historical and culturalfeatures, which has been reserved by legislation orother effective means, including custom, with theeffect that its marine and/or coastal biodiversity enjoy/
enjoys a higher level of protection than its surroundings” (decision VII/5). The Japanese bottom-up MPAs
described herein fall within this definition.

govErnAnCE mEChAnIsm oF sElFImPosED mPAs
A question may arise on the status of enforcement forthese self-imposed areas. Yagi et al. (2010) describeda mechanism for compliance to the rules as follows:Firstly, the economic logic of self-imposed no-takezones and their peer monitoring among membersof the same FCAs must be considered. Because thelimited entry system in coastal fisheries is strictly
maintained by the fishery rights regime imposedby the government, the same group of persons who
belong to the same FCA assume long-standing rights
to collectively use fishery resources in their waters. In
other words, the same group of fishers both bears theBox 6: kisetsu-sadame
Tetsuo Yanagi, Kyushu University
Although this report focuses on management options in a modern setting, it should be noted that many contemporary satoumi practices are rooted in traditions and local knowledge often dating back several centuries. This isparticularly true of customary co-management or community-based management practices. One example is theresource management by the fishers union on Himeshima Island in Oita Prefecture, which is still based on kisetsu
sadame, a document written in 1904 that summarises much older traditions. Kisetsu sadame details areas and periods where fishing is prohibited, such as the harvest of sea algae, permitted only in designated areas during theperiod 15 January to 5 February, or the trapping of red sea-bream, permitted only during the period 25 February
to 15 June. These traditional rules are regularly updated or complemented to follow technical developments. For
example, in 1916 the fishers decided to ban the use of red sea-bream trapping, a fishing method which led toan abrupt decrease in catch a few years after its introduction in the area in 1909. Today there are 197 membersin the Himeshima Fishers Union. All matters related to the management of fishing resources around HimeshimaIsland are decided in official meetings where 56 representatives of 7 villages on the island update kisetsu sadame,
including changes in the periods and/or areas of fishing prohibition.

cost of conservation and receives the benefits insidetheir local waters. Once they mutually agree to createa no-take zone as a means to maximize their collective benefit, they have a strong incentive to adhere
to it, and peer-monitoring activities would be initiated to deter poachers. Several fishers informed theauthors that they in fact monitor positions of boats of
their peers in the sea using vessel positioning devices,cell-phones, or other communication tools. Sanctions
among cooperative members and the local societies
are often levied in the case of infringement.
Secondly, self-imposed no-take zones are perceived
as being just as legally binding as other no-takezones among FCA members. The majority of legallybinding no-take zones and protected waters listed
in prefectural fishery coordinating regulations are
considered to be originated from historic voluntaryno-take zones. Community-based coastal fisheries management started more than 250 years ago inJapan (Aotsuka 2000). The record shows that the fishery regulation of Tokushima Prefecture, for instance,
which was enacted in 1895, contained provisions ofclosed areas and seasons. Such provisions were nota new creation at the time of the legislation about
115 years ago but merely a legalization of measuresthat already existed as self-imposed community rules(Aotsuka 2000). This observation is reasonable judging from the fact that creating new no-take zones fromscratch usually requires more transaction cost thanjust reauthorizing already existing customary rules. It
can be argued that, because starting points for voluntary and legally binding no-take zones were similar,

the members in FCAs tend to adhere to both rulesin similar manners.
Why are many self-imposed MPAs left unlisted in
the government legal framework? FCAs usually haveboth published and unpublished rules, and many
MPAs are unpublished. Yagi et al. (2010) explain thereason why some of them are left unpublished in official documents as follows: first, the non-binding ones
are relatively new and therefore missed the timingof major revisions of prefectural fishery coordinating regulations. Members of FCAs would prefer toavoid the rigorous documentation process required
to register such areas as legally authorized protectedareas, when good compliance for such local MPAs
are maintained even without the formal legal status.
Second, fishers prefer flexibility in protecting migratory species. In the case of the sand eel fishery in Ise
Bay, the area of the autonomous MPA changes weekly
to allow timely escapement of moving fish stocks(Matsuda et al. 2010). Were the regulation formalised
through legislation, it would not be fully adaptive tothe rapidly changing biological distributions of target
species for protection (Yagi et al. 2010).

Satoumi AnD mPAs
Activities for habitat rehabilitation are not counted as
MPAs in the study of the University of Tokyo because
they do not constitute activities to reserve conﬁned
areas. Rather than simple area reservations, theytake the form of positive interactions of users with99

CBD Technical Series No. 61

Overview Article 1: Satoumi and Institutional Characteristics of Japanese Coastal Fishery Management

should recall that compliance mechanisms of Japanesestyle satoumi and MPAs are based on peer monitoring and sanctions by community stakeholders whoshare the cost and benefit of conservation activities.

Figure 2. Local activities for habitat restoration for
native bivalve species through the removal of alien
predator shellfish species, and for the improvementof a tidal flat ecosystem by tilling the bottom
sediment (Photo: Nobuyuki Yagi, Iwate Prefecture).

the ecosystem, and they include seagrass planting,sediment removal from the ocean bottom, removalof alien species, or tree planting adjacent to uplandrivers to improve the water quality entering the ocean.
Nonetheless, it can be considered that such activity
also has “the effect that its marine and/or coastal biodiversity enjoy/enjoys a higher level of protection thanits surroundings” like many other MPAs.
Such local bottom-up activities for habitat rehabilitation are a central feature of satoumi, a traditional
stakeholder initiative to conserve and sustainably use
ecosystem services. The term “sato” means “residential area” and “umi” means “the sea”. Reports on suchactivities are detailed throughout this technical series
and available in various publications and websites (seehttp://hitoumi.jp/hozen/).
The effectiveness for conservation and/or biodiversity management of such interaction with coastal
ecosystems should be duly taken into account in intergovernmental processes to complement the current
focus on total area coverage of MPAs. In certain
settings, taking into account the intensity of activities as described above, not based on area reservation
yet effective at conservation, would benefit the fair andholistic evaluation of marine conservation activities.

Satoumi and self-imposed MPAs are management
tools that can jointly benefit the members of theco-management group. As argued above, satoumi andautonomous MPAs are not a product of simple altruism, but rather are logical extensions of the tenuresystem guaranteed by the government legal system.
Users must be interested in the sustainability of theparticular resource so that the expected benefits willoutweigh current costs (Ostrom et al. 1999). To thisend, the role of the government is important in keeping
the non-stakeholders from gaining access to no-takezones (Francour et al. 2001). In the case of Japan, thefishery right issued by the government allows exclusive
access to fishery resources for the license holder andis treated as a non-transferrable property right under
the fishery act. In return, FCAs are expected to establish their collective management rules for resource
exploitation in the tenure area (World Bank 2006). It
can be concluded that, unless similar strong territorial
use-rights are guaranteed by government or similarauthorities, the Japanese style satoumi or self-imposed
MPAs are difficult to transfer to other countries.

Takahashi, Y. 2007. Japanese fisheries and ‘the period ofresource enhancement’. Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppan (InJapanese).
World Bank. 2006. Scaling up marine management: therole of marine protected areas. Washington D.C.: WorldBank.
Yagi, N, T. Takagi, Y. Takada, and H. Kurokura. 2010.
“Marine protected areas in Japan: Institutional
background and management framework.” Marine
Policy 34: 1300-06.
Yamamoto, T. 1995. “Development of a community-based
fishery management system in Japan.” Marine Resource
Economics 10: 21-34.

References
Aotsuka, S. 2000. “The history of legal system in Japanesefisheries.” Tokyo: Hokuto Shobo (In Japanese).
Francour, P., J. G. Harmelin, D. Pollard and S. Sartoretto.
2001. “A view of marine protected areas in thenorthwestern Mediterranean region: siting, usage,
zonation and management.” Aquatic ConservationMarine and Fresh water Ecosystems 11: 155-88.
Makino, M., H. Matsuda, and Y. Sakurai. 2009.
“Expanding fisheries co-management to ecosystembased management: a case in the Shiretoko world
natural heritage area, Japan.” Marine Policy 33: 207-14.
Makino, M., and H. Matsuda. 2005. “Co-management inJapanese coastal fisheries: institutional features andtransaction costs.” Marine Policy 29: 441-50.

Are Japanese style satoumi and
MPA practices applicable in othersettings?

Matsuda, H., M. Makino, J.C. Castilla, H. Oikawa, Y.
Sakurai, and M. Tomiyama. 2010. “Marine protectedareas in Japanese fisheries: case studies in Kyoto,
Shiretoko and Ise Bay.” Proceeding of international
symposium on integrated coastal management formarine biodiversity in Asia 59-63.

The potential relevance of Japanese satoumi practices
in other contexts should be examined. To this end, we

Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the commons: the evolution of
institutions for collective action. New York: Cambridge
University Press.

100

Ostrom, E., J. Burger, C.B. Field, R.B. Norgaard, and
D. Policansky. 1999. “Sustainability revisiting thecommons: local lessons, global challenges.” Science 284(5412): 278-82.

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Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

overview article2

synthesis: emerGinG satoumi PraCtiCes For
biodiversity manaGement in human inFluenCed
Coastal eCosystems
Joannès Berque1 and osamu matsuda2
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa, 2-1-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa,
Ishikawa, Japan 920-0962. E-mail: berque@ias.unu.edu*
2 Hiroshima University, present address: 6-8-13 Hachihonmatsu-Minami, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-0144 Japan.
E-mail: matsuda036@go3.enjoy.ne.jp
1* Current aﬃliation: Institut mauritanien de recherches océanographiques et des pêches, B. P. 22, Nouadhibou, Mauritania. E-mail: joannes.berque@gmail.com

ABstrACt
The preceding case studies report on the progress of satoumi practices as field tested, culturally appropriate attempts to integrate conservation and use of biological diversity in human-influenced coastal seas.
While the enhancement of exclusionary (protected area-based) and mitigating (e.g., reducing fishingor pollution) approaches to conservation remain a high priority, there is also a pressing need to develop
the knowledge base for managing biodiversity on the large and growing proportion of our shores where
exclusion is difficult and mitigation insufficient. Satoumi’s nuanced view of human interaction withnature coherently incorporates conservation measures involving more—rather than less—human interaction with the ecosystem. Preliminary results from the study sites suggest that in human-influenced
seas, such “active” measures are useful and even indispensible complements to “passive” conservation, when the ecosystem cannot recover by itself and human nurture is needed. There is also reported
evidence demonstrating that, under certain conditions, human nurture has enhanced marine ecosystemservices in a sustainable manner. The case studies further report on modern-day practices effectively
engaging local communities in conservation, and on the ownership of conservation measures by fishers that voluntarily internalise conservation costs in satoumi co-management. The latter appears to reston collective ownership, with limited access and empowered collective structures that can reflect a notpurely economic view of the ecosystem. Overall, satoumi appears to be a versatile approach that coherently incorporates a wide variety of considerations, from economic to spiritual, community-based toscientific, traditional to modern. Encouraging results in biodiversity conservation at the community
level present a compelling argument for further research and assessment, effective uptake in wider
integrated coastal management frameworks, and catalysing of international mechanisms to share andaccount for related practices effectively.

IntroDuCtIon
The Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 (CBD 2010a)
confirms the alarming decline of marine biodiversity, reported earlier in the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (MEA 2005). In response, the tenth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (COP 10, Nagoya, Japan, 18-29
October 2010) adopted the Aichi Biodiversity Targets,
including the aim of 10 per cent of marine and coastal
areas being protected or benefiting from other areabased conservation measures by 2020 (target 11, CBD
2010b). Marine protected areas (MPAs), which havebeen the cornerstone of most biodiversity conservation strategies, have proven their effectiveness in manycases (CBD 2004a). Nonetheless, disappointing results
and hardship to local communities are documented inother settings (Hilborn et al. 2004; Jones 2006; Charles
and Wilson 2009). There is a growing consensus thatfor conservation to succeed, societies must find ways
to balance and integrate conservation and use of biodiversity, as Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) agreed in Principle 10 of the CBD
Ecosystem Approach (EA, CBD 2000): “The ecosystemapproach should seek the appropriate balance between,
and integration of, conservation and use of biologicaldiversity.” In the face of ever-increasing demand for102

coastal space and accelerating ecosystem degradation
over much of the world’s coastlines, there is a pressing
need to rapidly expand the knowledge base for managing biodiversity through ways that can complement
the sole exclusion of human influence.
The case studies report progress in both field implementation and the assessment of culturally appropriate
conservation practices at the community level inhuman-influenced coastal seas, attempting to integrateconservation and resource use in ecosystems ranging
from a well-preserved UNESCO World Heritage site
to a fully urbanised one, from ice-floe covered waters
to coral reefs. Satoumi evokes satoyama (Takeuchi etal. 2003) and other cultural landscapes, where humanhands patiently nurtured nature to enhance ecosystemservices sustainably (CBD 2010c), but the questionof whether this has also happened at sea is not thefocus of the case studies or this synthesis chapter.
Notwithstanding the importance of traditional knowledge in satoumi, this synthesis will focus primarily
on practical options for ecosystem management inmodern, industrialised settings—currently the main
thrust of satoumi activities in Japan.
In line with the founding definition of satoumi(Yanagi 2007) as a coastal sea with high productivity

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CBD Technical Series No. 61

and biodiversity combined with human interaction,
in a modern context satoumi holds a nuanced viewof human interaction with the coastal environment,
in which human presence is not always destructive.
Satoumi-oriented conservation measures can put towork carefully controlled human influence on theecosystem. These will be referred to herein as active
measures in order to distinguish them from passive
conservation measures that reduce human influenceon the ecosystem through exclusion or mitigation.
Passive measures rely on the ecosystem to recover on
its own without human interaction, or to sustain itself
if human interaction is sufficiently curtailed.
Typical exclusionary approaches include MPAs, moratoria or seasonal restrictions on fishing; mitigating
approaches include fishing quotas and regulations
on or treatment of industrial effluents. Expanding
the application and effectiveness of such measuresremains a central challenge in biodiversity management. Nonetheless, in certain cases, and particularly
in human-influenced ecosystems, they are neither
sufficient nor the most effective and most realistic conservation option available. Human nurture issometimes necessary in order to reintroduce biodiversity in severely degraded ecosystems, as is the case in
Ago Bay (case study 7 and Matsuda, personal communication 2010), and is demonstrated in restoration
efforts in many different settings (e.g., Ingram 2010).
In the rapidly expanding proportion of inhabitedcoastlines, it is likely that active conservation measures will often be useful complements to exclusion
and mitigation. This chapter proposes a synthesis of
the progress reported in the case studies in developing such measures in Japan’s satoumi.

Satoumi conservation throughhuman influence on biogeochemical
cycles
The role of humans in nutrient and material cycling
between coastal and terrestrial ecosystems is a central
aspect in satoumi, and is one way by which traditional
human interaction may have enhanced ecosystemproductivity and biodiversity (Yanagi 2007). For
example, human uptake of fish or seaweed removes
reduced organic carbon from the coastal sea, which isthen returned in oxidised form through rivers to thecoastal sea. In stratified enclosed seas, such humanactivity may reduce hypoxia and enhance nutrient
content in the euphotic layer. In enclosed seas, where

104

Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

humans have interacted with nature in such ways fora long time and these activities have changed sufficiently slowly for the ecosystem to adapt, this human
influence may have brought the coastal sea to a moreproductive, yet sustainable, resilient and biodiverse
state. In modern times, however, disruption of thesecycles by abruptly changing human activities is amajor destructive anthropic pressure, and restoration or conservation will include carefully controlling
anthropogenic impact on these cycles. As illustrated
in the case studies, active measures may be a valuable tool in such efforts.
Table 1 lists active conservation measures modifying biogeochemical cycles in the case studies. A wide
variety of essential environmental variables can be
influenced: dissolved oxygen in the water (through theculture and harvesting of seaweed or the adjustment of
the depth and other parameters of artificial tidal flats);
aerobic conditions in the tidal flat sediment (manual
tilling of the sediment or enhancement of the waterexchange with the open sea); suspended sedimentin lagoon waters (planting flowers around fields ortrees in mountains to reduce soil erosion and runoff);
wetland nutrient loading reduction (promoting waterexchange with less nutrient-rich seawater); tidal
flat nutrient loading enhancement (using dredged,
eutrophic wetland sediment); reduction of nutrient
loading in a bay (planting and harvesting of kelp);
and regulation of various geochemical cycles throughtransplants of Zostera marina (eelgrass). Tree planting and forestry management in the river basin areimportant aspects in nearly all satoumi sites. Besides
providing a host of other important ecosystem services for the land itself, well-maintained forests andwatershed ecosystems regulate land input of nutrients,
sediment and driftwood into coastal seas. Althoughsome of these practices are relatively new and arestill being evaluated, others are time-tested practices (centuries old in the case of tree planting; seefor instance box 1 on the fish-breeding forest), andstill others are of scientifically documented effectiveness, as indicated in this table.
A wide range of parameters in the coastal environment
can thus be influenced and brought back or “adjusted”
through active measures to a range more optimal forthe ecosystem productivity and observed biodiversity.
Several of the case studies report encouraging dataon locally enhanced biodiversity as a result of theseactions. These include an increase in abundance andsize of the target species for conservation, such as the

Table 1. Human influence on biogeochemical cycles for ecosystem conservation or productivity. Active
conservation measures involving human action to influence biogeochemical cycles in the coastal environment asreported in the case studies. Shaded cells in column 4 (Benefits for conservation) indicate those where one or moreof the case study report observations showing locally enhanced biodiversity as a result of the measure (refer tocase study for details). Numbers in parenthesis in the last column refer to the case study number.
Parameter toinfluence

ActionEffectBenefits forconservation

Illustrated incase study

Green laver
culturePhotosynthesis oxygenates,
reduced carbon removed
before oxidation in water as
seaweed is harvested

Helps mitigate
or prevent
anthropogenic
hypoxia

Ago Bay (7)Adjustingdepth and otherproperties ofartificial
tidal flat

Daytime photosynthesis
compensates for oxygen
consumption at nightSufficient oxygen
to host target
species forconservation

Tokyo Bay (6)Tilling mud by
hand

Favour aerobic conditions inthe sediment

Better habitatfor clams (andpresumably otherspecies)

Yamaguchi (9)Promotingwater exchangewith open sea

Favour aerobic conditions inthe sediment

Better habitat for
macrobenthos

Ago Bay (7)Suspended
sediment inlagoonPlanting shellflowers aroundagricultural
fieldsReduces red soil runoff
and thus sediment loadin lagoon

Prevents damage
to the reef (redsoil disturbs
photosynthesis
and larvae
deposition)

Okinawa (10)Nutrientloading
reduction in awetlandEnhancingwater exchangewith the bay

Circulation of oligotrophic
coastal waters reduces
further eutrophication in thewetlandEnhances
macrobenthos
biodiversity

Ago Bay (7)Nutrientloadingenhancement
in a tidal flat

Spreadingof dredged
wetlandsediment

Eutrophic wetland sedimentenhances nutrient load in the
tidal flat

Enhances
macrobenthos
biodiversity

Ago Bay (7)Reducenutrient loadin BayPlanting andharvesting of
makombu kelp

Kelp has a strong nutrient
absorption capacity

Helps prevent
eutrophication

Toyama (3)Transplanting
Zostera marina

The seagrass bed
regulates many
parameters, including
nutrients, sedimenttransport, oxygen ...

Regulation offluxes, structuring
habitat for the
ecosystem, andmore

Ago Bay (7),Kanagawa (Box 4),
Toyama (3),Yamaguchi (9)Planting trees inriver basin

Prevents excessive soil
erosion and siltation, nutrient
input, debris ...

Regulation offluxes and more.

All case studies

Dissolved
oxygen inwater

Oxygen in thesediment

Land/seamaterial
cycling105

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Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

Table 2. Reported practices for maintaining or enhancing existing habitats (2.1), restoring or expanding natural
habitats through propagation, transplant or aquaculture of macro-algae or coral (2.2), and creating artificial habitats(2.3). Shaded cells: in column 3 (purpose) indicate that the activity was motivated by conservation, in column 4(conservation benefit), indicates that the case study provides data suggesting the conservation benefit is achieved
locally. Numbers in the parenthesis in the last column refer to the case study number.
Table 2.1. Habitat maintenance or “improvement” in the case studies.
HabitatTidal flat

Tidal flat

Tidal flat

Various

Activity

Tilling tidal
flat mud by
hand

Crushing
oyster shells
Net coveringof mudConservation
benefitPurpose
Traditionally: harvesting of
short-neck clams
Today: softened sediment more
hospitable to clam larvae, and favour
aerobic conditions in the mud
More hospitable to clams
Protect clam from eagle ray
predation

Modification of biogeochemical fluxes to maintainoxygen, sediment loading, nutrient loading within
optimal range

Illustrated incase study(ies)

Conservation ofshort-neck clams,a local species
emblematic of the
traditional satoumi

Yamaguchi (9)Conservation of theshort-neck clam

Yamaguchi (9)Conservation ofshort-neck clam

VariousSee Table 1

Conservation
benefitIllustrated incase study(ies)

Okinawa (10)Activity

PurposeMozukuaquaculture
nets (andother edible
seaweed)Set nets, propagate
mozuku seaweed,
harvest, maintainwater levels at low tideby enclosing area

Food production,
but provides habitat
and food for variousorganisms

Enhanced local
biodiversity

Zostera marina
beds

Includes some or all of:transplant of eelgrass,
nurture, use special
mats, seed collection
and sowing

Habitat for various
fish

Ecosystem
conservation andstructuring

Sargassum
seaweed beds

Transplant, artificial
blocks as seaweedbeds

Spawning ground forsandfishResource
conservation andnurture, and others

Makombu kelp

Coral reef

106

Plant sporophytes(Dec), harvest kelp
(May)

Install iron bars insandy areas

Conservation
benefitIllustrated incase study(ies)

Purpose is agriculture,
but traditionallyprovided spawning
ground for various fish

Ecosystem structure
and biodiversity

Yamaguchi (9)Building ishihimi withstonesTraditionally: fishing
Today: habitat for avariety of species

Enhance local
biodiversity

Okinawa (10)Set net gear

Set netFishing, but provides
habitat and egg laying
site

Resource conservation

Toyama (3)Suspended nets

Set netSpawning site forsandfishResource conservationand nurture

Akita (2)Concretealgal reef

Building reef andtransplanting
sargassum

Spawning site forsandfishResource conservationand nurture

Akita (2)Experimental
tidal flat

Construction, thenmaintain optimal
nutrient loading
through waterexchange or use ofdredged wetland
sediment

Identify, and thenmaintain, optimal rangeof nutrient loading
for macrobenthos
biodiversity

Local biodiversity andecosystem structure

Ago Bay (7)Artificial
tidal pool

Construction,
determination of
optimal parameters,monitoring
effectiveness

Identify optimal tidal
pool features forconservation, field test
applicability and involve
neighbourhood citizens
in local conservation

Enhance local
biodiversity, restore
part of the ecosystem
connectivity in the bay

Tokyo Bay (6)HabitatActivity

PurposeRice paddies

Build and maintainrice paddies

Stone weirin coral
reef lagoon(ishihimi)

Yamaguchi (9)Table 2.2. Habitat restoration or expansion through “cultivation” in seawater in the case studies.
HabitatTable 2.3. Artificial marine or aquatic habitats in the case studies.

Ago Bay (7), Box 4,
Toyama (3),Yamaguchi (9)Akita (2)

Nursery groundfor juveniles.
As well, foodproduction, prevent
eutrophication,
carbon sequestration

Resource
conservation,
regulate Bay
nutrient loading

Toyama (3)Coral reefaquaculture andregeneration

Enhance local
biodiversity, reef
conservation,othersOkinawa (10)short-neck clam (case study 9, Yamaguchi Estuary),
gobi fish (case study 6, Tokyo Bay), or macrobenthos(case study 7, Ago Bay).
Many of what are referred to here as active measures
are commonly used in restoration efforts worldwide.
It should also be noted that these measures, except
possibly tree planting, basically bring geochemical
fluxes and residence times back to pre-industrial, lesshuman-influenced levels. Hence, in the longer term,
these measures bring about a decrease in human influence on the cycles. However, they are classified hereas active conservation (or active restoration) because
bringing these fluxes to a range more suitable forbiodiversity was achieved through more, rather thanless, human interaction with the environment. For
example, planting and harvesting kelp as a means ofcombating eutrophication (case study 3, Toyama Bay)clearly entails more human influence on the marine
ecosystem, as opposed to a mitigating approach suchas stricter regulations on agricultural runoff, eventhough both measures aim at decreasing nutrient
concentration in coastal waters. The results reported
in the case studies suggest that active measures canbe useful complements to protection or mitigation incertain cases, particularly those where compromisewith other coastal uses result in insufficiently stringent/enforced regulation for effective conservation.

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Habitat improvement or provision
In satoumi, another way human labour on the environment may be used for conservation is through the
improvement or creation of habitats for marine species.
In tables 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, the practices reported in thecase studies have been classified into those modifying existing habitats to make them more hospitablefor certain species (e.g., tilling tidal flat mud, installing nets to protect one species against new predators),
those restoring or expanding existing habitats throughtransplant, propagation or aquaculture of various typesof macro-algae and coral, and those involving the creation of entirely human-made, artificial marine/aquatic
habitats (e.g., rice paddies, artificial tidal flats, concrete
algal reefs). All of these entail significant human workand attention, often in the form of careful manual
labour in a marine environment. In certain cases the
purpose of the activity is conservation, while in othersa habitat is provided for an exploited species with theaim of growing and harvesting the resource; in othercases, the habitat provision is an unintended side benefit of an activity that has no conservation purpose.
Preliminary results showing locally enhanced biodiversity are reported in the case studies (Table 2, column 4,
shaded cells). Hence, while further research is needed,
these practices appear to be worth exploring as partof the tools available for biodiversity conservation inhuman-influenced coastal seas.
Habitat provision at sea is evidently neither new nor a
distinguishing characteristic of satoumi. Humans havebuilt structures to provide a habitat for oyster culture
for centuries; more recently they have constructed artificial reefs (e.g., Baines 2001) and replanted mangroves(e.g., Bosire et al. 2008), and there are many ongoing coral reef regeneration projects. Artificial aquaticor marine habitats are currently being built in many
areas, and their effectiveness for ecosystem conservation or restoration is being assessed, particularly alongurbanised coasts (Martins et al. 2010; Chapman andBlockley 2009).
Habitat provision involves elaborate human interaction with the ecosystem and is thus qualitatively
different from exclusionary or mitigating measuresfor conservation. Several of the case studies show local
communities carefully tending to their coastal ecosystem and patiently (re)generating a nurtured nature ina marine environment. As such, habitat provision is
one example where wise use of marine resources goes108

Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

beyond sufficiently curtailed hunting-gathering activities. The results suggest that, under certain conditions,humans can actively enhance coastal ecosystem services in a sustainable manner, and such options should
be fully explored and taken advantage of for marine
conservation.

Satoumi in co-management forsustainable fisheriesCompared to the high seas, where overfishing isregularly pointed out as the single largest threat tobiodiversity (e.g. Worm et al. 2006; Pauly et al. 1998),
coastal ecosystems are affected by a variety of otheranthropic pressures, such as land-use changes andpollution. Yet overfishing also remains one of the mostimportant drivers of biodiversity depletion in coastal
waters (Jackson et al. 2001), and developing wise fisheries management practices is naturally one of thecornerstones of satoumi practices.
In many of the world’s coastal seas, the disappointing results of overly centralised, government-based
fisheries management regimes in delivering progress
towards sustainability have led to approaches
devolving more responsibility to local users in the
management of the resource, such as co-management(FAO 2009; Pomeroy and Rivera-Guieb 2006). In fisheries co-management, authorities at various levels andlocal fishers share responsibility in the management
and conservation of the resource. Co-management
regimes have many advantages in implementing an
ecosystem approach to fisheries management and are
typically better suited than centralised ones to making
effective use of local users’ knowledge of the ecosystem (Thorburn 2000), an important dimension of
satoumi practice. Co-management is in many ways
part of the traditional fisheries management regime
in Japan, and has proved useful for conservation(Makino and Matsuda 2005), with over 30 per centof marine protected areas designated and self-imposedby agreement among the members of co-management
organisations (chapter 1, section III; Yagi et al. 2010).
Table 3 provides examples of participation of resource
users in management and of their contribution toresource conservation, as reported in the case studies. There are many promising practices throughwhich fishers have effectively contributed to moresustainable fisheries in a co-management framework.
Fishers’ organisations have facilitated the consensual

Table 3. Example of fishers’ participation in the management and conservation of the resource in the case studies.
Conservation practices limiting human interaction with the ecosystem (first row), practices unrelated to direct
human interaction with the ecosystem (second row), and practices involving increased human interaction with theecosystem (third row). The latter are more distinctly satoumi-oriented practices in fisheries resource management(see text). Numbers in parenthesis refer to the case study number.

Decreasing humaninteraction withthe ecosystem

NeutralIncreasing humaninteraction withthe ecosystem

Setting limits
to resource use• Fisheries cooperatives play a key role in establishing consensus for a
moratorium (2)• Fishers establish consensual resource sharing rules (2)• Female divers collectively discuss and sometimes reject newtechnology (2)• Fisheries cooperative establish self-imposed no-take marine reserves (10)• Fisheries youth group participate in enforcing the no-take reserves (10)Monitoring
the ecosystem• Contribute local knowledge of the ecosystem to the management
framework (all case studies, particularly important in 1 and 10)• The first to raise voice on eutrophication problems (3) andenvironmental degradation (7)• Provision on essential data on ecosystem productivity and health (1)• Provision of long-term, routine monitoring of water quality (3)Nurturing
the resource• Population control efforts for crown-of-thorn starfish, the mostsignificant threats to coral reefs (10)• Tree planting activities in the watershed to mitigate soil runoff anddebris input to the bay (3)• Sargassum transplants for spawning area for exploited fish (2)• Transplants of Zostera marina to regenerate seagrass beds, critical
habitat for juveniles (8)• Cultivation of Makombu kelp (Saccharina japonica) as food source, andcarbon sequestration, but also to help prevent eutrophication andprovide habitat for fish (3)• Raising mozuku seedlings for livelihood, that also provide habitat for
certain species (10)• Coral regeneration, provides habitat for many fish species (10)establishment and enforcement of limits on resource
use in Akita and Okinawa (case studies 2 and 10),and the previous chapter reports on the existence ofmany self-imposed, self-enforced MPAs. In Toyama(case study 3), fishers played a key role in monitoring ecosystem health through routine observations
and the provision of environmental parameters, andin all the case studies they contributed essential local
ecosystem knowledge to the management framework, with case study 1 (Shiretoko) and 8 (Okayama)
having a particular emphasis on this aspect. Moredistinctly, satoumi-oriented fishers contributions toresource conservation include active measures, suchas transplanting of Zostera marina to restore seagrassbeds in Okayama or cultivation of makombu kelp inToyama to provide a habitat for juveniles, transplanting Sargassum to spawning sites in Akita, or fishingvillage communities actively contributing to watershed afforestation (Toyama, Akita, and to some extent
in all satoumi sites).

For fisheries to be sustainable through co-management, effective understanding and cooperation between
resource users (fishers) and conservationists is crucial.
It appears from several case studies, and in particular
Shiretoko (case study 1), that satoumi provides a backdrop that facilitates a convergence of views between
users and conservationists. The traditional satoumi
landscapes were shaped in large part by humans, withfishers and other users a central part in the popular
imagery of satoumi. The nostalgia evoked by satoumi is
exempt of the fascination for a wilderness unspoiled byhuman contact that has been a guiding vision for many
conservationists, at least since John Muir. Nostalgia
in satoumi, rather, is a longing for a society close to
the nature it nurtures. The importance of this imagery
should not be underestimated. Recent research demonstrates the importance of implicit images in fisheries
governance. In fact, it appears that the less explicit, themore such images can influence governance outcomes,
so that their explicitation may be necessary to avoid

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Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

Another advantage of satoumi in co-management liesin the diversity of active conservation practices that it
accommodates and to which fishers can contribute,beyond remaining inactive during moratoria or staying
away from protected areas. These practices, listed in
the third row of Table 3, include reforestation of mountain slopes in the river basin to regulate discharge ofnutrients and sediment, growing and harvesting ofkelp to provide habitat for juveniles and help prevent
eutrophication, sargassum seaweed transplants to beds
that will provide spawning grounds and a habitat forjuveniles in order to nurture the sandfish resource,
and participation in coral reef regeneration activities.

The collective ownership structure upon which thissatoumi styled co-management has evolved cannot
be overlooked. As demonstrated in chapter 1, section
III (institutional characteristics of Japanese fishery
management), the ecosystem users (fishers) invest
labour in conservation and enforcement of collectively
agreed regulations because they can be confident thatthey will be the beneficiaries of ecosystem productivity and sustainability. Government-enforced exclusive
access to the resource, with non-transferable property and territorial use rights, thus appear as sine qua
non conditions for the successful internalisation of
ecosystem conservation costs in Japanese satoumi.
Schematically, 1) limited access to the resource
ensures a collective interest on the part of the local
users community in sustainably using the ecosystem,
then 2) strong local community associations or fisherycooperatives ensure that individual users follow thecollectively agreed rules, and finally 3) the importanceof hereditary transfer of use rights, over market-basedtransfer, ensure that the interest of future generations
is considered in the collective decisions.

It is worth noting that as the fishers are contributing time, labour and resources, these active measures
are internalising some of the costs of maintaining theecosystem structure and function within an economic
activity that benefits from conservation. In exclusionary and mitigating approaches, fishers’ contribution toconservation is to stay inactive during the off-season,or to stay out of no-take areas, neither of which readilyinternalises costs. As such, resource nurturing in satoumi
is an interesting implementation of Principle 4c of the
CBD ecosystem approach: “Internalize costs and benefits[of ecosystem-management] in the given ecosystem tothe extent feasible” (CBD 2000), as a way to ensure thatthose who benefit from conservation pay the costs associated with conservation. It is worth noting that the main
driving force of active conservation in satoumi is typically manual labour, rather than financial investment.
Consequently this type of internalisation circumvents
the difficulties posed by certain measures that necessitate
financial investment from fisher communities, such as,
for example, the complications that arose from requiring
fishers in developing countries to install turtle-excluding devices on their nets (WTO 1998).
One aspect worth considering is that through practices such as kelp cultivation or eelgrass transplanting,the fishers reinvest the labour saved by mechanisation(or by fishing restrictions) into the ecosystem to main-110

The importance of hereditary collectivism for ecosystem conservation and biodiversity management insatoumi is brought up in various ways in several casestudies; one striking illustration is given in case study
5 on Hegura Island where female diver (ama-san)communities manage their resource. Again making
a parallel with the case of rice paddies, where community investment of labour, in the form of an irrigation
system for example, is necessary for ecosystemproductivity, collective decision-making and action
is essential in the ama-san’s management of Heguraisland’s marine resources. As such, sustainable use insatoumi is achieved not through ever-increasing privatisation and individualisation of responsibilities, as
has often been advocated as the chief solution to thetragedy of unregulated commons (Hardin 1968), but,to the contrary, through collective property, strong
collective structures and collective responsibility forthe ecosystem.

Table 4. Communities engagement in satoumi activities, from those with no direct action on the environment to those
involving manual labour on the ecosystem. The expected results are described in the right-hand column. Numbers infront of the case study indicate the case study number.

No direct modification of the environment

tain its productivity. In economic terms, rather than anatural wealth to be exploited while externalising costs
as much as possible, the satoumi is treated more likea fixed capital worth investing labour in, a situation
reminiscent of rice paddies (Berque 1982) or othercultural landscapes where human nurture significantly
contributed to ecosystem productivity. This may be aframework that more readily accommodates internalisation within the ecosystem of conservation costs.

Awarenessandparticipationin decisionmaking

Monitoringof theenvironment

Control
populationof target
species forconservation

Controlled modification of the environment

self-fulfilment (Jentoft et al. 2010). If the backdrop that
attracts conservation actors is one in which the ideal
nature is devoid of fishers (or indeed of any humans),
it will be more difficult to enrol the support of fishers. It
is difficult to engage constructively with people whose
livelihood is seen as a nuisance. These are just some of
the aspects that may explain why, in the cultural context
of the case studies, satoumi was a discourse that was
effective for cooperation with fishers.

River basin
cultivation

Habitatimprovement

Habitatconstruction“Cultivating”
at-seaType of activity

Community
engaged

Expected results

Awareness raising and schoolparticipation activities in
artificial habitats (6 Tokyo)

Neighbourhood
residents, school
children

Awareness andknowledge of local marine
environment raised

Participation in committees, localorganisations and discussion groups
for the management of the coastal
environment (all case studies)

Local communities

Enhanced decision-making
process

Seashore animals monitoring (7 Ago Bay)

School children

Routine biodiversity dataon ecosystem health andbiodiversity

Public participation in study of water
circulation with float experiment (6 Tokyo)

Bay community

Data on water circulation in
the Bay

Fishing census to monitor
gobies size around site, 2 hours
fishing effort, (6 Tokyo)

Local Community

Better knowledge of theenvironment network andof target specie preferredhabitat

Mitigate outbreaks of crown ofthorn starfish (10 Okinawa)

Prevent damage to
Recreational divers the coral from starfish
predation

Nets to protect clam larvae fromeagle ray (9 Yamaguchi)

Local community

Foster repopulation of tidal
flat by the target specie

Planting of shell flowers around fields
to prevent soil runoff (10 Okinawa)

Local community

Prevent stress to coral andother benefits)

Reforest river basin slopes (2Akita, Box 5 Yura River)

Local community,
volunteers,
students

Control soil erosion andinput into coastal waters ofnutrients, sediments, debris

Manually till the tidal flatmud (9 Yamaguchi)

Local community

Favour aerobic conditions
in sediment and soften soil
surface to host clam larvae

Building ishihimi stone fishingweir (10 Okinawa)

Local community

Provides habitats for avariety of species

Participate in setting optimal
tidal flat depth (6 Tokyo)

Neighbourhood
residents

Improved habitat for thetarget specie

Transplanting sargassum seaweed (2 Akita)

Local community

Provide habitat for sandfish

Local community

Restoration of habitat,
nutrient cycling, enhanced
purification capabilities ofthe ecosystem and others.

Transplanting of Zostera marina, or
eelgrass (7 Ago Bay, Box 4 Kanagawa,3 Toyama, 9 Yamaguchi)

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Community engagement in satoumi
Community participation in conservation and natural resource management is crucial for many reasons,
including the effective use of local ecosystem knowledge, leverage of limited resources, and ownership or
simple acceptance of the management programme, as
is widely documented in diverse settings (Roe et al.
2009; Dahl 1997; Primavera 2000), including industrialised coasts (Edwards et al. 1997). The effective
use of community-based conservation practices in amodern context is the subject of much research bothin international cooperation (IFAD 2006; Danida2007) and academia (e.g. Bjerkes 2006; Raymond
et al. 2010). For such reasons, the development ofmodern-day practices engaging local communities isa central aspect in satoumi (EMECS 2008; PEMSEA
2009; MoEJ 2010). In addition, because active satoumi
conservation measures often require many hands
and/or sustained attention and care, community
participation is particularly important for successful implementation.
The case studies report promising engagement oflocal communities in satoumi, as compiled in Table
4. Communities have participated in awareness-raising and decision-making activities (all case studies),
provided essential routine ecosystem monitoringdata (Tokyo and Ago Bay, respectively case studies
6 and 7), and, in more distinctly satoumi-oriented
practices, have contributed crucial manual labourfor conservation activities, such as planting trees orshell flowers to manage land-based nutrient input(all case studies, especially Okinawa, case study 10),tilling tidal flat mud to soften the soil and favour
aerobic conditions in the sediment (Yamaguchi, casestudy 9), building stone fishing weirs as biodiversity-enhancing habitats (Okinawa, case study 10), ortransplanting and nurturing sargassum seaweed or
Zostera marina (Toyama, Ago Bay and Yamaguchi,
respectively case studies 3, 7 and 9). (Note: community-based activities where fishers are the main
contributors are not reported in Table 4, as they are
already reported in Table 3). Reported factors ofsuccess in community engagement include widely
recognised good practices such as long-term engagement of scientists, decision-makers, locally anchoredorganisations and other stakeholders, as was the casein all the case studies. As well, although it is difficult to precisely delineate their specific contribution,
satoumi-specific aspects appear to have been valuable as discussed below.

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Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

It is clear from Table 4 that active satoumi-oriented
conservation provides for a great diversity of opportunities to engage in conservation practice close tonature. Many of these activities, originating in satoumi’s nuanced view of human interaction with theenvironment, put to work a positive role of humans
in nature (see lower part of Table 4, rows labelled“Controlled modification of the environment”). In
contrast, mitigating approaches naturally tend to leadto activities grappling with the negative side of humankind’s role in nature, such as garbage and pollution.
Volunteer participation in garbage pick-up and oil spillcleanups on beaches is vital, but such activities may beless rewarding, and typically happen in less pleasantenvironments, than nurturing seagrass beds, planting trees, or building and monitoring new habitats
for nurturing fish as reported in the case studies. One
could conjecture that the basic premise of satoumi—
that humans can learn to nurture nature at-sea—canmore readily appeal in positive ways to communities,
compared to exclusive or mitigating approaches thatessentially request humans to stay away from naturein order to preserve it (except when it is to clean up
the mess left by others).
It is worth noting that success in involving communities in conservation-purposed manual labour oncoastal ecosystems is documented in vastly different cultures, from Senegal, where tens of thousands
have mobilised to plant mangrove trees (Bassene2010), to British Columbia, where the popularity ofeelgrass transplanting is used to involve communities in environmental restoration (Wright 2005). Such
active measures diversify engagement opportunities
for communities, and the results reported in different
contexts suggest a valuable appeal to active measuresin engaging communities.
Finally, it appears that in the cultural and social context
of these projects, satoumi provided an appealing backdrop for local communities to become engaged. Thereis an emotional dimension to satoumi that may beconsidered as one of the underlying motives forcommunity participation. The word sato, which could
be translated as “home village”, implies a certain senseof longing that in satoumi evokes nostalgia for a society more intimate with coastal landscapes and nature.
Satoumi is also in the realm of emotions and sensations, of a sense of self where relationship with placeand nature is essential, and as such, appears usefulin grounding what might seem abstract conservation concepts in a closer reality for local communities.

For example, the satoumi activities in Tokyo Bay(case study 6) included the collection and display ofavailable photographs that showed neighbourhood
residents how different and beautiful the place had
been not so long ago (K. Furukawa, personal communication 2010). The short-neck clam chosen as thetarget species for conservation had special meaning
to older residents in the Yamaguchi Estuary (casestudy 9), many of whom had grown up enjoying tilling the tidal flat mud in search of the clams. Childhood
memories are reported to be an essential aspect of acommunity’s emotional attachment to their coastal
landscape (Satake and Kamihogi 2006). Community
participation in activities to restore a healthier lagoon
ecosystem in Okinawa (case study 10) is linked to abroader movement to conserve their cultural identity as “reef people”.
Further research is required to precisely assess thecontribution of emotional and/or spiritual dimensions
in community engagement in satoumi. At any rate, theimportance of such motives in community participation is widely reported in cultures from South America
to Scandinavia (Folke et al. 2005), India (Stone et al.
2008) and the South Pacific (Jolland and Harmsworth2007). The importance of intangible ecosystem services
is also recognised in many intergovernmental processes, including the CBD ecosystem approach (CBD2000). While economic valuation of these intangible services is important to guide decision-makers inconservation (Vejre et al. 2010), conversely, to enrol
communities and volunteers, the reverse may be true:
rather than economic or scientific arguments, linking
conservation to intangible values may be the mosteffective (Koss and Kingsley 2010). In the long run,providing this link in a modern setting is possibly
the most valuable advantage of satoumi in the coastal
conservation efforts reported in the case studies.

Future perspectives: Science needs,
policy uptake and international
cooperation
The case studies may best be seen as progress reports.
Regarding further research needs, in general, there areencouraging results on the conservation (and possibly enhancement) of local biodiversity through a wide
range of site-specific active measures in coastal ecosystems; however, there is a need to further assess thosepractices over longer periods of time and evaluate
their effectiveness when applied on a larger scale. The

case studies raise a number of specific research questions for subsequent projects, including the need toquantitatively assess the conservation effectiveness offisher forests (case study 3, Toyama) or other forest
management efforts (e.g. box 5, Yura River); modelling, observation and further studies of the ecologicalnetwork in Tokyo Bay (case study 6, Tokyo); assessment of environmental restoration technologies (casestudy 6, Tokyo); sharing international experience inhabitat-providing stone fishing weirs (case study 10,
Okinawa); further assessment of the contribution of
the fisheries sector to ecosystem management (casestudy 1, Shiretoko); and refining assessments of thecarrying capacity of semi-enclosed seas for oyster
farming (case study 3, Nanao, based on previous
research not reported in this case study).
Several of the case studies advocate the development of multidisciplinary approaches, taking into
account socio-economic components of research on
satoumi (case studies 7 and 9, respectively Ago Bay
and Yamaguchi, and less explicitly in several others).
As pointed out in the Yamaguchi case study, in otherinvestigations (Arrow et al. 1996; Vatn 2010) and in
the CBD ecosystem approach (CBD 2005), the current
economic system does not readily internalise the costsof ecosystem use/depletion, and this may be one of thegreatest threats to biodiversity. This failure to internalise costs may be of particular concern for marine
ecosystems (Kullenberg 2010). This would argue foradequate study and documentation on satoumi’s often
successful internalisation of conservation costs byecosystem users through collective ownership andresponsibility (see the section on co-management for
more details), and how centuries-old hereditary collective practices have evolved and adapted to modern
settings.
While furthering current research on the appropriate economic valuation of ecosystem services
remains of the utmost importance, at a fundamental level, non-economic and non-utilitarian analysis
may need to be better integrated into the knowledge
base in order to achieve sustainable use of biodiversity components (Kosoy and Corbera 2010). In
particular, community participation in some cases
cannot be understood if values such as altruism are
ignored (Stone et al. 2008), or if a purely “economic”
view of development is the unsurpassable horizon of
all conservation efforts (Jollands and Harmsworth2007). Promoting more sustainable individual behaviour—a crucial step towards securing sustainable113

CBD Technical Series No. 61

coasts—will require collaboration with other fields,
including psychology (Atran et al. 2005). The refusalof the women diver community to adopt time- andeffort-saving technology on the grounds that it willalter their cultural identity and relationship with theirenvironment (Hegura Island, case study 5) is an ostensible incompatibility with the dominant view on thevalue and utility of work, time and economic effectiveness. Although further research is needed, the female
divers’ low debt ratio appears to be an example of how
collective choices, taking into account cultural, environmental and social (employment) consequencesof capital investment in technology, can in the longrun be more beneficial both for the ecosystem and forecosystem users than short-term economic considerations alone. Satoumi, as illustrated in the casestudies, is a versatile approach that coherently incorporates considerations from economic to spiritual,community-based to scientific knowledge, traditionaland modern. As such, multidisciplinary research on
satoumi may develop practical options for conservation that integrate a broad range of knowledge sources
and map culturally appropriate ways to achieve Aichi
Biodiversity Targets 18 and 19 on knowledge management and participatory planning (CBD 2010b).
Another priority pointed out in several case studies(Tokyo, Ago Bay and Yamaguchi, respectively casestudies 6, 7 and 9) is the need to adequately reflect goodpractices developed at the community-level in broader
management frameworks and in national policy. Thisis needed if satoumi practice is to have a significant
effect on the coastal environment. Effectiveness wasdemonstrated at the community-level in the casestudies and summarised in the tables in this chapter, but the application of community-level practiceto larger management frameworks is not necessarilystraightforward (Berkes 2006). The Japanese government is currently experimenting with precisely suchan endeavour, mainstreaming satoumi in its Strategy
for a Sustainable Society as a way to achieve productive, sustainable coastal environments that are enjoyedand valued by communities (GoJ 2007). Satoumi isalso an important element of marine conservation
and restoration for productive and beautiful coasts
in the Basic Ocean Policy (GoJ 2008a), and a central
element for marine and coastal biodiversity conservation in the Third National Biodiversity Strategy (GoJ
2008b). The Ministry of Environment, the Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministryof Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism haverecently increased the prominence of satoumi in policy

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Overview Article 2: Synthesis: Emerging Satoumi Practices For Biodiversity Management in Human Influenced Coastal Ecosystems

as well as in supporting field implementation, with one
or several of these ministries playing a leading role ininitiating and/or supporting satoumi in several of thecase studies. The reader is referred to chapter 2, section
I for a review and discussion of satoumi mainstreaming and relevant policy.
The next few years should provide valuable insightfrom this particular experience in the uptake ofcommunity-level practices in national policy, andfrom relatively small experimental areas to larger
sections of the Japanese coast. For the time being,satoumi’s broad applicability has proved valuable inways encompassing the distinct priorities of different sectors in relatively coherent ways. From thisperspective, satoumi may link effectively to an integrated coastal management framework, an effective
approach to both conservation and use of biodiversity
components (CBD 2004b; PEMSEA 1996; UNESCO
1997). The Ago Bay case study (7) provided an earlyprogress report on such endeavours, and the Shiretokocase study (1) reported on the successful implementation of management involving three ministries atvarious levels.
International collaboration will be important bothfor satoumi progress in Japan and for the adaptationof practices field-tested in Japan in other places, as
appropriate, bearing in mind the specific territorial
use rights and collective structures on which hinge
key aspects of satoumi, such as co-management,
which may limit the applicability of satoumi practices to certain coasts (see the previous chapter for a
detailed discussion of satoumi-related fishing rights).
Such collaborations are now taking shape, including through a number of international events where
satoumi-related experiences from various countries
were discussed (EMECS 2009; PEMSEA 2009). The
Okinawa case study reports on the organisation of aworld ishihimi summit in Shiraho, Japan, in October
2010, where the experience in the use of stone fishingweirs for conservation and satoumi in many countries was shared, and several events on satoumi whichwere held at the 10th meeting of the Conference ofParties to the CBD, Nagoya, Japan 18-29 October2010. There is also increasing attention worldwide
to active conservation measures. Seagrass transplanting for environmental management is now conductedin many countries and is the subject of much research(e.g. Li et al. 2010; Van Katwijk et al. 2009), and thestudy of artificial marine habitats for conservation ofurbanised coastlines is swiftly progressing (Martinset al. 2010; Chapman and Blockley 2009). In general,
there is thus a rapidly expanding worldwide knowledge base for the management of biodiversity inhuman-influenced coastal seas, to which the Japanesesatoumi experience should be contributed. Fostering
appropriate international and intergovernmental processes will be important in accelerating advances inthis domain.
Links to international processes will become
increasingly necessary for any strategy for coastal
conservation. Coastal ecosystems are linked to theoffshore through many processes (see case study 2 on
Akita for an interesting example) which often crossborders. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment(MEA 2005) typology, satoumi at this stage fits into
an “adapting mosaic scenario”, with watershed-scale
focussed ecosystem management and a strong community-base. In this scenario, the local impacts of global
environmental problems eventually make it impossible to manage successfully only at this scale. The
impact of overfishing in high seas, climate change,
ocean acidification, and global marine biodiversity
depletion, to name but a few, will not somehow stopat the outside boundary of the coastal zone. In theend, for satoumi to prosper in local ecosystems, theglobal ocean must be managed with the same care andprecautions as traditional communities have for theirsatoumi cultural landscapes.

Acknowledgements
One of the authors was supported by Ishikawa
Prefecture and the City of Kanazawa during the preparation of this article. Anne McDonald, Mitsutaku
Makino and Marjo Vierros provided essential views
and ideas for this synthesis.

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