Abstract
Bioeconomic research aims at developing a more resource-efficient and sustainable society that uses renewable biological resources to produce food, materials, and energy. Economic supremacy causes many problems, such as global warming, depletion of fossil fuels and natural resources, and loss of biodiversity. In order to build a more sustainable society with resource efficiency, it is necessary to discuss the institutional framework, which includes environmental assessment, environmental monitoring, biological resource management, human resources management, and education. This chapter examined the effectiveness of forest-river-ocean nexus-based education for community development (FRONE) in encouraging the sustainable use of biological resources. Combined with the adaptive cycle, FRONE is considered to have the potential to promote the sustainable use of biological resources. In the future, further bioeconomic research from the point of view of the education system will be needed.
TopBackground
Japan is an island country that includes approximately 6800 islands, and has a privileged natural environment with bountiful forest, rivers, and ocean. Traditionally, people living in the islands have taken care of these natural environments over generations. Therefore, biodiversity has been maintained by traditional farming societies, forest societies, and fishing communities through a sustainable way of maintenance and the utilization of biological resources. This tradition has also benefited the Japanese society since ancient times. People could live a stable life without worrying about resource depletion, which laid the foundation for Japan’s subsequent cultural development.
However, after the high-growth period from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, its inhabitants’ awareness of the coexistence of nature and human beings has been seriously diluted. Dilution of the consciousness caused various environmental problems concerning the connection between nature and human beings (Ministry of the Environment, 2016). Some examples are widespread abandonment of farmland, decrease of animals and plants species in Satoyama, water pollution, and severe climate change.
In order to solve these problems, some fishermen and local residents in northern Japan worked together to make people re-recognize the forest-river-ocean nexus (Wakana, 2001). In 2016, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment announced proposals on the nexus between forest-river-ocean and human beings. The proposal stated that the connection is essential to the establishment of a sustainable society. Such society is featured with environmental, social, and economic sustainability, low-carbon, resource-circulating, and natural symbiosis.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Food Intrinsic Value (FIV): Recognition that people live in the spatiotemporal connection of forests, rivers, and the ocean through food.
Self-Determination Theory (SDT): A theory of motivation. It is concerned with supporting our natural or intrinsic tendencies to behave in effective and healthy ways.
Great East Japan Earthquake: Disaster caused by the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011.
Adaptive Cycle: A fundamental unit for understanding complex systems of resilience from cells to ecosystems and societies.
Aquatic Marine Environmental Education (AMEE): An education program of aquatic marine environment based on the theory of the learning cycle. As defined in the AMEE, an aquatic environmentally literate person can observe his or her surrounding aquatic marine environment in a scientific way, inquire the related environmental problems and the well-being of human communities, grasp the required comprehensive knowledge such as aquatic marine environmental literacy, make responsible decisions and take responsible actions based on his or her outdoor learning experiences and the comprehensive knowledge, and has the capacity to convey them to as many people as possible effectively.