358
deal of research is now carried out as explained
by Dr. Takahashi.
Literally, “sato” in Japanese means a local
community or village where people live their life,
and “umi” is the common word for the sea so that
the fi rst meaning of sato-umi is the sea associated
with a local community or village, in other words,
a symbiotic relationship between human activities at the seashore and nature in coastal areas.
Therefore, sato-umi aims at well-balanced sustainable management of coastal seas not only in
water quality but also in both ecosystem and ecosystem services, while the implementation of the
sato-umi concept has been promoted in many
ways and many places in Japan.
The concept is derived from a much older one
that applies to rural land management under the
term of satoyama. Indeed, both approaches are
totally interlinked as underlined by Prof. Komatsu
who presented the traditional and sustainable use
of the marine eelgrass as a fertilizer for agriculture in the Seto Inland Sea. The land is giving the
nutrients to the sea and in return, the sea is giving
the fertilizers for cultivating the land. Everywhere,
farmers and fi shers have learned to live in harmony with nature. In France , several typical agricultural landscapes may be considered as a kind
of satoyama and a salt pond marshland as a kind
of sato-umi. This has been somewhat lost and
should be regained through local and scientifi c
knowledge.
Sato-umi is deeply rooted in the traditional
way of coastal management where community
efforts were undertaken in a comprehensive and
integrated manner from upland forest and rivers
to coastal seas. In that regard, sato-umi may be
regarded as based on traditional methods of sustainable community-based management of the
coast and the sea.
However, the period of high economic growth
has induced important social and natural condition changes that lead to the degradation and loss
of natural capital (environment, landscape, and
resources). In reaction, the term sato-umi became
the mark of a kind of “rebirth” to restore once lost
rich and healthy coastal seas using communitybased participatory activities as a concept incorporated into offi cial institutional systems of
national policies such as the Basic Ocean Plan
(2008) based on the National Ocean Policy (Basic
Ocean Act, 2007) and other environmental strategies. Among others, it is worth mentioning the
Act for the Promotion of Nature Restoration
(2003) based on the unprecedented idea of
initiating nature restoration projects involving
governments and municipalities based on the initiatives of local organizations rather than governments or municipalities’ regular plans.
At the local level, municipalities from the Seto
Inland Sea also introduced the concept of satoumi as an offi cial policy. One of the participants
to the round table, Mr. Tanaka, introduced one
successful example in the municipality of Hinase,
Okayama prefecture.
There are about 200 fi shing families who
make their living from coastal fi sheries. Like in
many other places in the Seto Inland Sea, industrialization and land reclamation severely damaged the coastal ecosystem. Many species of
marine life disappeared as swaths of natural habitat, including mud fl ats and eelgrass beds, were
mostly destroyed and as the water quality highly
degraded by river runoff polluted by household
sewage and toxic chemicals from industrial
plants. As a result, fi shers have seen their fi sh
stock more and more depleting, shifting to oyster
farming for a good number of them. In the 1960s
and onward, a governmental project to enhance
local fi sh stocks (“from catching fi sh to cultivating fi sh”) was implemented in the Seto Inland
Sea. It involved releasing cultured juvenile fi sh
and shellfi sh stock (sea bream, shrimps, crabs,
etc.) into the coastal enclosed sea in order to
enhance stocks of commercially valuable fi sh.
But after several attempts to increase fi sh
stocks that way, the fi shing community (about
200 families) in Hinase recognized that it would
not be possible to recover fi sh stocks simply by
artifi cially increasing the number of juveniles.
Something was missing, in particular, one of the
main habitats, i.e., the sea grass beds or amamoba, the area of which declined drastically from
590 ha in the 1940s to just 15 ha in 1985.
In 1985, the Hinase Fisheries Cooperative
Association (FCA) initiated the project to restore
the eelgrass beds. Through observation from fi shY. Hénocque
deal of research is now carried out as explained
by Dr. Takahashi.
Literally, “sato” in Japanese means a local
community or village where people live their life,
and “umi” is the common word for the sea so that
the fi rst meaning of sato-umi is the sea associated
with a local community or village, in other words,
a symbiotic relationship between human activities at the seashore and nature in coastal areas.
Therefore, sato-umi aims at well-balanced sustainable management of coastal seas not only in
water quality but also in both ecosystem and ecosystem services, while the implementation of the
sato-umi concept has been promoted in many
ways and many places in Japan.
The concept is derived from a much older one
that applies to rural land management under the
term of satoyama. Indeed, both approaches are
totally interlinked as underlined by Prof. Komatsu
who presented the traditional and sustainable use
of the marine eelgrass as a fertilizer for agriculture in the Seto Inland Sea. The land is giving the
nutrients to the sea and in return, the sea is giving
the fertilizers for cultivating the land. Everywhere,
farmers and fi shers have learned to live in harmony with nature. In France , several typical agricultural landscapes may be considered as a kind
of satoyama and a salt pond marshland as a kind
of sato-umi. This has been somewhat lost and
should be regained through local and scientifi c
knowledge.
Sato-umi is deeply rooted in the traditional
way of coastal management where community
efforts were undertaken in a comprehensive and
integrated manner from upland forest and rivers
to coastal seas. In that regard, sato-umi may be
regarded as based on traditional methods of sustainable community-based management of the
coast and the sea.
However, the period of high economic growth
has induced important social and natural condition changes that lead to the degradation and loss
of natural capital (environment, landscape, and
resources). In reaction, the term sato-umi became
the mark of a kind of “rebirth” to restore once lost
rich and healthy coastal seas using communitybased participatory activities as a concept incorporated into offi cial institutional systems of
national policies such as the Basic Ocean Plan
(2008) based on the National Ocean Policy (Basic
Ocean Act, 2007) and other environmental strategies. Among others, it is worth mentioning the
Act for the Promotion of Nature Restoration
(2003) based on the unprecedented idea of
initiating nature restoration projects involving
governments and municipalities based on the initiatives of local organizations rather than governments or municipalities’ regular plans.
At the local level, municipalities from the Seto
Inland Sea also introduced the concept of satoumi as an offi cial policy. One of the participants
to the round table, Mr. Tanaka, introduced one
successful example in the municipality of Hinase,
Okayama prefecture.
There are about 200 fi shing families who
make their living from coastal fi sheries. Like in
many other places in the Seto Inland Sea, industrialization and land reclamation severely damaged the coastal ecosystem. Many species of
marine life disappeared as swaths of natural habitat, including mud fl ats and eelgrass beds, were
mostly destroyed and as the water quality highly
degraded by river runoff polluted by household
sewage and toxic chemicals from industrial
plants. As a result, fi shers have seen their fi sh
stock more and more depleting, shifting to oyster
farming for a good number of them. In the 1960s
and onward, a governmental project to enhance
local fi sh stocks (“from catching fi sh to cultivating fi sh”) was implemented in the Seto Inland
Sea. It involved releasing cultured juvenile fi sh
and shellfi sh stock (sea bream, shrimps, crabs,
etc.) into the coastal enclosed sea in order to
enhance stocks of commercially valuable fi sh.
But after several attempts to increase fi sh
stocks that way, the fi shing community (about
200 families) in Hinase recognized that it would
not be possible to recover fi sh stocks simply by
artifi cially increasing the number of juveniles.
Something was missing, in particular, one of the
main habitats, i.e., the sea grass beds or amamoba, the area of which declined drastically from
590 ha in the 1940s to just 15 ha in 1985.
In 1985, the Hinase Fisheries Cooperative
Association (FCA) initiated the project to restore
the eelgrass beds. Through observation from fi shY. Hénocque