Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the idea and method of “Citizen Works” as an approach to community-based nature restoration. The authors have developed the concept of “Citizen Works” on the basis of the case of restoring estuary named Kamoko on Sado Island, Niigata prefecture. The most difficult concern for the restoration of Kamoko is its governmental limitation: the estuary is a public property not designated by law. In order to promote the restoration project, we established a citizen organization, in which local residents carried out a restoration project in collaboration with researchers, private companies and governmental officials. In this paper, we explain the restoration process, and propose “Citizen Works” as an effective method for the regeneration of commons which means grass roots nature restoration.
