Abstract
Over the past 20 years, the international trend in nature conservation has shifted from the preservation of pristine nature to the maintenance of biodiversity and coexistence with human society, leading to the emergence of new concepts and systems such as PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) and OECM (Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures). Additionally, there has been a growing movement to reexamine nature conservation from human and cultural perspectives, including the respect and protection for sacred sites and the establishment of protection guidelines. Japan has also made progress in institutionalizing nature-coexistence sites and introducing user-fee systems for conservation. In the field of forestry economics, research on monetizing the value of natural resources developed significantly in the late 1990s, but in the 2010s, qualitative research on forest education and cultural value also began to be conducted. Furthermore, it has become clear that the conflict between conservation and utilization
is not the only issue, but that diverse values and power relations are also involved, and the importance of governance and participatory consensus-building has been pointed out. In Japan, however, issues such as fiscal and personnel shortages and immature risk management persist in relation to nature conservation. Furthermore, even when resident participation is formally incorporated, the government structure remains top-down, leading to reactive and passive decisions that result in conflicts with local communities, as evidenced by empirical research.
