How can public participation in coral reef management be increased? An empirical study in Japan

Abstract

Owing to threats to coral reefs due to anthropogenic climate change and other factors, this study aims to clarify the effective development of coral reef management in the waters around Japan by exploring the reasons why people have not participated in coral reef management and identifying the barriers to participation. This study focused on the sentiment of ``regret,'' which was mentioned as a key exemplified factor for behavior modification in previous studies. Herein, data acquired by a web investigation was used for analysis, and two working hypotheses were verified. The first hypothesis was that ``Subjective assessment of the existential value of coral reefs is statistically significantly correlated with feelings of regret expressed in the face of steady bleaching and death.''. The second hypothesis is that ``People who have many intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for not participating in coral reef management activities do not regret confronting such serious situations''.As a result of the analysis, Hypothesis 1 was accepted and Hypothesis 2 was partially conditionally accepted. These results suggest the following implementation of the obtained knowledge into practice. That is, many respondents did not participate in management activities that did not have clear objectives, despite regrets based on information on past coral reef degradation; increasing the number of participants by addressing their feelings of regret is not easy. In contrast, manageable administration and accessibility of specialists that offer opportunities for participation in coral reef management are effective solutions for latent citizen participation and facilitate appropriate technical guidance.