2016 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Integrated policy potentials and adaptive capacity building in small-scale fisheries communities
| Project/Area Number |
15K00662
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
まくどなるど あん 上智大学, 地球環境学研究科, 教授 (80625012)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | ama free divers / FEK / resource management / climate change / adaptive capacity / artisanal fisheries / adaptive policy |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Towards understanding the changes in the marine environment and the impacts on resource use and management of artisanal and small-scale fisheries in Japan, communities vulnerable to the increasing adverse and often uncertain impacts of climate change, carried out interviews of female ama free divers.
Research achievements may be summarized as the following: i) contributed to policy discussions at the global level at the UN Sustainable Ocean Initiative meeting where representatives from UN FAO fisheries and UNEP discussed how to integrate the knowledge sets of fisher communities and resource managers to develop culturally and ecologically relevant policies towards achieving Aichi Targets 6, 10, 11 and the SDGs 2 and 14; ii) contributed to fisheries policy development at UN FAO to develop and guide national policies to support artisanal and fisher communities where fisher ecological knowledge (FEK) is integrated into policy for resource use and management and designing of marine protected areas; iii) contributed to discussions at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meetings at COP13 Cancun on how traditional fisher communities like the ama divers of Japan contribute to marine biodiversity management in fisheries and marine protected area design and implementation and how this impacts adaptive capacities in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss; iv) contributed to reports and policy development for ama free divers in Japan as part of efforts to receive intangible cultural heritage designation for ama culture by the Japanese Cultural Agency.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Travel to communities was impeded by unforeseen weather conditions that resulted in inability to carry out the in-depth interviews according to planned schedules with the communities. As with much field work in fishing communities, much depends on the ocean and this year perhaps as a testimony to climate change impacts, increased unpredictable adverse weather conditions affected fisher schedules and thus interview schedules. Did reduce the interviewee pool this year to increase efficiency in site interviews, however, this too has limitations because reducing the interviewee numbers results in less comprehensive gathering of collective observations. Will have to reconsider approach, specifically increase the interviewee pool in gather ama FEK sets in the Japanese Archipelago.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Plan to maintain original research plan of interviewing ama divers in Ishikawa, Mie, Chiba and Tsushima but also am adding in comparison with FEK of artisanal fisher communities in small island states who are facing similar challenges in the face of climate change. This is to gain new perspectives on the potentials of ama diver FEK in Japan in developing climate adaptation policies not only in Japan but using this research towards global policy initiatives, specifically at FAO and UN Convention of Biological Diversity Sustainable Ocean Initiative work towards integrating FEK into policies towards achieving Aichi Targets 6,10 11 and SDG 2 and 14.
Challenges are multifold however in this research, specifically securing a robust number of interviews. Common with all fisher communities, ama free divers live according to the rhythms of the ocean and often a planned interview schedule will be suddenly cancelled do to changing ocean conditions, thus making the interviewing process challenging.
Plan to continue to include interviews with local fisher cooperative representative and local government fisheries managers in each ama community and field-based fisheries research station to add to local knowledges set to be included in the study.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Plans to travel to the field to carry out field-based interviews in late January to March were cancelled due to adverse conditions and community availability for rescheduling was not possible.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The plans for carryover funds use is to travel to the fields sites planned in January-early March 2016. Also funds to be used to attend and speak at UNESCO and the Conventional of Biological Diversity Secretariat global initiative for bio-cultural diversity meetings at UN Headquarters in New York, USA. The talk is a case study of ama community resource use and management and how cultural identity may be a leverage in sustainable resource management.
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Research Products
(8 results)
