Incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into holistic watershed management: Fishery forests in Japan

Kyohei Matsushita, Masakazu Hori, Fumihiro Yamane and Kota Asano

Ecological Economics, 2023, vol. 204, issue PA

Abstract: In Japan, fishers plant trees in upstream watersheds, known as “fishery forests,” to improve coastal environments and secure fishery production. Based on observation and experience, fishers have traditionally believed that their practices are fit for their intended purpose. Fishers have found it difficult to continue their practices due to budget constraints caused by a recent decline in coastal fisheries. As such, they are currently faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to restore watershed forests to improve the coastal environments or minimize expenses in an effort to secure financial sustainability. This draws attention to further issues: whether or not fishers can obtain a net return on their efforts, and if so—when. To this end, we examine the economic value of the traditional ecological knowledge using data of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Hiroshima, Japan. The results show that, while fishery forests mostly pay their costs in the long run, the costs are higher than the benefits for the first several years because of the initial costs of afforestation. With the aim of contributing to holistic watershed management, we propose policy instruments that could be employed to alleviate front-loaded costs so that fishers can engage in traditional ecological knowledge-based practices.

Keywords: Traditional ecological knowledge; Fishery forests; Land-sea linkages; Holistic watershed management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800922003159
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:204:y:2023:i:pa:s0921800922003159

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107654

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().