Current Feasibility Studies
Feasibility Studies are based on proposals solicited annually by RIHN from the researchcommunity at-large. If approved by the Project Review Task Committee, lead researchers
are granted seed funding in order to develop their proposal for Full Research. FS status
can be maintained for no longer than two years.

FS/PR

Fair for whom? Politics, Power and Precarity in Transformations of Tropical Forestagriculture FrontiersGrace WONG, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
Area : Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak)
In many parts of the tropics, forest-agriculture
frontiers dominated by diverse swidden
landscapes are rapidly being converted toincreasingly homogenous landscapes ofcommodified agriculture. Often labeled as“development”, these transformations have notgenerated desired social-ecological outcomes andoften do not fairly benefit smallholders in theselandscapes. Our research thus aims to examine
the power relations, politics of forest and land use,
and local agency underlying transformations inforest-agriculture frontiers, and assess options formore sustainable and equitable development.

Forest-agriculture frontier in Laos38

FS

An Ecology of Care Approach to Neurological Disorders: Toward a Comprehensive
Model for Care Embedded in a Biosocial Milieu
NISHI Makoto, Kyoto University
Area : Cameroon, Japan, Sri Lanka, Uganda“Ecology of care” is a framework for multidisciplinary research and practice to address healthissues closely related simultaneously to biologicaland social milieus. This research project focuseson epilepsy and dementia as two common neurological diseases. It aims to understand knowledge,
technologies, and values as factors that determine
the quality of life of individuals and families affected by these diseases in various ecological andsocial settings. Livelihood, disease burden, carerelationships, and social conflicts are among themajor areas of concern.

Farmers engaged in farming activity in a village in northern Uganda which was recently affected byan epidemic of epilepsy.

FS

Metacognitive Interventions on Social Actors to Enable the Transition Towarda Sustainable Society
NAKAGAWA Yoshinori, Kochi University of Technology
Area : Pokhara City, Kathmandu
Due to financial difficulties, many developingcountries are poorly managing wastes, and thisis causing environmental degradation and publichealth problems. By taking the perspective of thefuture generation, the present society may regret
this prioritization and the lack of creativity inaddressing waste management and other policy
goals. The present study aims to investigate whether
and why a metacognitive strategy may improve
waste management in Nepal.

One scene of a picture-story developed by this project to share the reality of environmental
degradation in Sisdol landfill site, Kathmandu City, Nepal.

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Current Feasibility Studies

FSDeveloping Inclusive Wealth with Clarifying Mechanism of Social Value Formation
and Application to Sustainable Policy Design
MANAGI Shunsuke, Kyushu University
Area : Japan and other countries
In the arena of global environmental policy, the past
several decades have seen some major accomplishments
in setting goals. At the onset of 2016, the United
Nations ushered in a very ambitious list of goals to beachieved by 2030. The 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) include the elimination of poverty andhunger, realization of gender equality and reductionof social inequalities, as well as peace, justice, andnew institutions and partnerships. The 13th goal ofSDGs is devoted to “Take urgent action to combat
climate change and its impacts.” Accordingly, the ParisAgreement was reached at the COP21 on 12 December
2015, and entered into force in the next year. In
particular, the Agreement determines that all countries
put an effort to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees
Celsius at most.
This ambitious target-oriented approach to tacklingenvironment and development challenges iscommendable in many ways. It serves to share theFSstatus of the topic with a wide audience on the globe.
Moreover, the goals may facilitate local regions in the“downscaling” of global goals, leading to local initiatives
to complement global solutions. We build on the pastachievements of Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR), but
extend the analysis both in depth and breadth. In
particular, our target is to develop a theory of how theidea of inclusive wealth can be put into general practice.
Application came already introducing increase in IW
to be the target of Hisayama city at Fukuoka, Japan. We
provide national reports to other countries and intend tocooperate with other region too.

Inclusive wealth concept: physical capital + human capital + natural capital = inclusive wealth

Adaptive Governance of Multi-Resource based on Land-Sea Linkage of Water Cycle:
Application to Coral Reef Island System
SHINJO Ryuichi, University of the Ryukyus
Area : Japan, Palau, Indonesia
People in tropical-subtropical small islands have
lived with limited environmental resources.
Recent increases in island populations, tourism,and changes in land-use and social structure havemodified water and other environmental resources,
thereby affecting coastal ecosystems (e.g., coralreef system). Small islands are also vulnerable toglobal climate change. For sustainable developmenton islands, our project aims to investigate multiresource adaptive governance based on land-sea
linkage of water cycle in coral reef island system.
Student participation in an action research event in Southern Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands.

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CORE
FS

Tackling Wicked Problems: Co-creating Serious Games as Transdisciplinary Methods
to Solve Socio-Environmental Challenges
OTA Kazuhiko, RIHN
Area : Previous RIHN projects and sites
This proposal creates serious games for TD
research addressing environmental andsocial issues, and develops an underlying
methodology to this end. In addition tocollaborating with various practitioners using
games, the accumulated results of the projectwill be expressed in the form of a "serious gamenetwork." By the end of this Core Project, some of
the research results of RIHN will be turned into
games, and there will be attractive learning tools
for researchers participating in TD research andcitizens who want to collaborate.

Board game based on the theme of "Tragedy of the Commons". Created by citizens who participated ingame jam at RIHN.

COREFS

Development of Data-driven Decision Support Platform Based on Sustainable Life
Cycle Assessment of SDGs Nexus
Sanghyun LEE, RIHN
Area : Japan and GlobalStressors, including climate change,socio‐political, economic, and population pressures, challenge sustainable
resource management, which are in fact,
non-stationary, highly interlinked, andincreasingly unpredictable. Accordingly,
we need to understand the interaction
among resources, management, andmulti-scale interaction, in addition to theholistic impacts of stakeholder’s actions.
The aims of this study are to 1) study
new methodologies to analyze the multiscale impact assessment in the context ofcomplex trade-offs and synergy in SDGsNexus; 2) develop a data-driven decision support platform for assessing userscenarios; and 3) assess the applicabilityof the platform through transboundary
and transdisciplinary case studies.

The data-driven decision support system comprising database, multi-scale analysis, and holistic impacts

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