## Photo 3-3-3 Coastal Areas and Marine Life in Okinawa

## Photo 3-3-2 Photos from the Harie Area and Kabata

Channel flows through the Harie area

In-house kabata and vegetables chilled in kabata

Water crowfoot grows in pooled water

resources are indispensable to the lives of local people, and having people independently understand the value of natural resources and properly maintain them through voluntary rules can be considered the most fundamental behavioral principle that enables sustainable use of local natural resources.

## 3 Fishery Resources in Traditional Lifestyles (“Hamauri” in Okinawa Prefecture)

Surrounded by water, the people of the Japanese archipelago have lived in coastal areas since ancient times. Since fishery resources particularly impact people's livelihoods, exhaustion of these resources can give rise to local disputes. Unlike on land, fish and ships move around regardless of ocean boundaries. Decisions must therefore be made collectively by all stakeholders to sustainably use resources based on the concept of participation, whereby all stakeholders share the resources for controlling coastal areas such as fishing grounds.

Coastal fishing grounds are home for the people who live beside them. Therefore, there is a close relationship between how local people make a living and how they control coastal areas. The section below gives examples from Okinawa of how people's lifestyles are deeply rooted in the region and their ideal, sustainable use of coastal areas.

With oceans on all sides, Okinawa has developed various fishing methods from ancient times using the coral reefs along the seacoast. For example, many kinds of marine life, including those living in the coral reefs such as gurukun (a sea fish also known as takasago), filefish, grouper (sandfish), blue crabs, giant clam, cuttlefish, octopus, Strombus luhuanus, and seaweed are captured using drive-in nets, basket traps, gill nets, pound nets, and the like.

In Okinawan coastal areas, there are well-developed coral reefs. This creates calm water areas between the land and the deep sea called inoh (reef lagoons) (Figure 3-3-3). In the inoh, fish and shellfish use the gaps between sections of bedrock or sunken rocks for hunting food or laying eggs. The Okinawan people also use the inoh as a place to live and catch food. Inoh therefore loosely connect the land with the ocean, playing an extremely important role in both biodiversity and people's lives.

The lifestyles described above are deeply rooted in people's lives and are not limited to only fishermen (Figure 3-3-1). In early spring, Okinawans harvest edible seaweed such as sea lettuce (Monostroma nitidum) and sunui (Cladosiphon okamuranus), and suku (rabbitfish fry) in May. When the tide falls, they gather clams at the beach to enjoy the delicacies of the season. In accordance with Okinawan traditional customs, women purify themselves at the beach around March 3 (on the old lunar calendar) every year. They call this event "Hamauri" (literally, going down the beach). Around March 3, the gap between high tide and low tide is at its peak, so that many families gather at the beach to have a picnic or gather clams.

Okinawans have worshiped the seas and oceans as a fertility symbol that brings the harvest, while receiving

Basic Plan for Maintaining Coast and Seashore in Ryukyu Islands, Created by the Ministry of the Environment from the results of the questionnaire (2003)

the bounty of the oceans in their daily lives. As a result it is important for a sense of everyday life to be incorporated in ideal coastal area management in Okinawa, including controlling fishery resources and securing biodiversity.

For example, the “Hamauri” event is defined as “a rich cultural practice closely connected with nature” under the Overall Framework for Reviving Nature of the Sekisei Lagoon based on the Act on the Promotion of Nature Restoration. Furthermore, the Basic Plan for Maintaining Coast and Seashore in the Ryukyu Islands based on the Coast Act mentions developing facilities for conserving the coast, taking religious events such as “Hamauri” into consideration.

From the perspective of managing local natural resources, creating reasonable linkages between a sense of community life and policy decisions is considered to be extremely important.

“Inoh” viewed from the air

Photos: Ministry of the Environment

“Inoh” viewed from coast

Outer edge of coral reef

# Section 4 Achieving a Low-Carbon Society on the Characteristics of Local Communities 1 Low-Carbon Regional Development Initiatives Tailored to City Size

(1) Initiatives in Large Cities (Efficient Energy Usage Initiative in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture)

The lifestyles of people in large cities impose a significant burden on the environment through large-scale energy resource consumption. It is important that this energy usage be made more efficient across the board, so as to lower environmental load within cities. An important approach to achieving this is the formation of low-carbon city blocks. This in turn will require the development of efficient energy infrastructure.

Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture is known for how it obtains energy generated from the production activity of factories and applies this to the city's power grid. First, hydrogen produced during the steel-making process at steel mills in the city is collected. Via a dedicated pipeline, a portion of this hydrogen is supplied to neighboring housing complexes, fuel cells for restaurants and public facilities, hydrogen filling stations for fuel cell cars, and so on. Furthermore, the roofs of factories, open public spaces, and other underutilized spaces are put to efficient use for large-scale solar power generation.

In order to ensure that these energy resources are being utilized efficiently, an advanced energy management system is being developed. A local energy-saving plant was put in place in 2011 to serve as an energy management system. Through the use of the local energy-saving plant, individual energy management systems, and smart meters incorporated into residential and commercial blocks, the aim is to achieve two-way communication of the energy supply and demand situation, thus enabling efficient energy usage for the entire region (Figure 3-4-2).

Because of the importance of developing a smart grid for the large-scale introduction of renewable energy across the board, the Kitakyushu City initiative for establishing such a system to supply renewable energy to the entire city is considered to be a model for intelligent area-specific energy utilization.

(2) Efforts in Mid-sized Cities (Toyota City of Aichi Prefecture)

Mid-sized cities often require costs for infrastructure and energy for transporting people and goods because of their low density population. This is different from large cities, so it is important for mid-sized cities to make an effort to design low carbon cities, which differs from the design of large cities looking above.

Toyota City of Aichi prefecture is known as the city of automotive industry. Toyota City has been making efforts to introduce an environmentally friendly transportation system with next generation vehicles such as EV (electric vehicle) and PHV (Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle).

EVs and PHVs utilize rechargeable batteries and they need enough chargers in entire area of the City for avoiding the uneasiness of a flat battery. In Toyota City, people can use EV and PHV with renewable energy under the successful plan for introducing charger stations with photovoltaic panels and storage batteries. The surplus