25
potentially play the central roles in the policy coordination and create the synergy
effects. However, in reality, these organizations have smaller budgets, less staffs,
and limited policy capacities compared to the sectoral ministries such as MoE,
MAFF, MLIT, and MEXT. But they have advantages, as well. For example, local
government has the local sense of the realities and the close connections to the local
stakeholders. These are important and powerful advantages to codesign and coimplement the policy interventions. The Cabinet Office has the authority to coordinate other ministries, and it has the legal base to do that such as the Basic Ocean
Plan of 2018 or the Marine Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, etc. Therefore, the
more detailed analysis is required on how to design the multilevel governance
framework for the effective ocean policy as a whole, and on the ideal role sharing
and knowledge sharing scheme among the national government (including ministries), local government, local people, resource users, nongovernmental organizations, etc. (Jones 2014; Oyama 2017; Gerhardinger et al. 2018). Note that, as
Makino et al. (2009) discussed, international organizations can sometimes play
important roles to facilitate the multilevel and integrated governance within a country. Now, the Japanese government is planning to recommend this area to the
UNESCO World Natural Heritage. The inscription to the Heritage List will bring
additional effects for the ocean policy integration.
2.4.3 Next Step
This schematic is a qualitative expression of the interrelationships within the Sekisei
Lagoon Social-Ecological Systems. Therefore, we cannot draw any lessons or
implications about the cumulative effects or the trade-offs. Also, we cannot discuss
the timescale issues or the magnitude of uncertainties or fluctuations within this
schematic. In order to deal with these issues, quantitative model are needed. Also,
we need the Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis to understand the
spatial dynamics within the Sekisei Lagoon SES. However, taking the limitation of
the research budget and human resources into account, it is neither realistic nor
desirable to construct the detailed quantitative models for all the components of the
Sekisei Lagoon SES. We need to set the priorities. In doing that, the SES Schematic
can be utilized as a boundary object for local stakeholders, researchers, and decisionmakers to discuss together to identify which part of the Sekisei Lagoon SES should
be deeply analyzed by the detailed quantitative models. This is how the SES
Schematic analysis and the quantitative modeling analysis can be linked in a transdisciplinary research project.
By incorporating the future climate scenarios to the SES Schematic, we can discuss the potential effects to both the ecological and social system. Figure 2.9 is the
preliminary results of such exercise. As experienced in the Great Barrier Reef, the
climate change will trigger the mass breaching and death of the coral reef, which
then lead to the cross-scale effects to the larger ecosystem (Stuart-Smith et al. 2018).
The Sekisei Lagoon is the same. In 2016, a large-scale mass breaching were observed
2 Mapping the Policy Interventions on Marine Social-Ecological Systems: Case Study…
potentially play the central roles in the policy coordination and create the synergy
effects. However, in reality, these organizations have smaller budgets, less staffs,
and limited policy capacities compared to the sectoral ministries such as MoE,
MAFF, MLIT, and MEXT. But they have advantages, as well. For example, local
government has the local sense of the realities and the close connections to the local
stakeholders. These are important and powerful advantages to codesign and coimplement the policy interventions. The Cabinet Office has the authority to coordinate other ministries, and it has the legal base to do that such as the Basic Ocean
Plan of 2018 or the Marine Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, etc. Therefore, the
more detailed analysis is required on how to design the multilevel governance
framework for the effective ocean policy as a whole, and on the ideal role sharing
and knowledge sharing scheme among the national government (including ministries), local government, local people, resource users, nongovernmental organizations, etc. (Jones 2014; Oyama 2017; Gerhardinger et al. 2018). Note that, as
Makino et al. (2009) discussed, international organizations can sometimes play
important roles to facilitate the multilevel and integrated governance within a country. Now, the Japanese government is planning to recommend this area to the
UNESCO World Natural Heritage. The inscription to the Heritage List will bring
additional effects for the ocean policy integration.
2.4.3 Next Step
This schematic is a qualitative expression of the interrelationships within the Sekisei
Lagoon Social-Ecological Systems. Therefore, we cannot draw any lessons or
implications about the cumulative effects or the trade-offs. Also, we cannot discuss
the timescale issues or the magnitude of uncertainties or fluctuations within this
schematic. In order to deal with these issues, quantitative model are needed. Also,
we need the Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis to understand the
spatial dynamics within the Sekisei Lagoon SES. However, taking the limitation of
the research budget and human resources into account, it is neither realistic nor
desirable to construct the detailed quantitative models for all the components of the
Sekisei Lagoon SES. We need to set the priorities. In doing that, the SES Schematic
can be utilized as a boundary object for local stakeholders, researchers, and decisionmakers to discuss together to identify which part of the Sekisei Lagoon SES should
be deeply analyzed by the detailed quantitative models. This is how the SES
Schematic analysis and the quantitative modeling analysis can be linked in a transdisciplinary research project.
By incorporating the future climate scenarios to the SES Schematic, we can discuss the potential effects to both the ecological and social system. Figure 2.9 is the
preliminary results of such exercise. As experienced in the Great Barrier Reef, the
climate change will trigger the mass breaching and death of the coral reef, which
then lead to the cross-scale effects to the larger ecosystem (Stuart-Smith et al. 2018).
The Sekisei Lagoon is the same. In 2016, a large-scale mass breaching were observed
2 Mapping the Policy Interventions on Marine Social-Ecological Systems: Case Study…