Transboundary haze pollution is almost an annual event in Southeast Asia. The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) has been in effect since 2003 with the aim of preventing and monitoring transboundary haze pollution in the region. Recent studies appear to agree that the AATHP is considered a weak regional agreement, due to it being designed according to the ASEAN Way. This current study uses two concepts of incremental institutional change, namely layering and conversion, to explain how ASEAN managed to institutionally adapt to address transboundary haze pollution, despite being constrained by the weak agreement during the period 2003-2020. The results show that both before and after Indonesia ratified the AATHP, ASEAN gradually adapted its institution through layering by introducing new elements, including additional actors, meetings and initiatives. After Indonesia ratified the AATHP, ASEAN also adapted its institution through conversion by reinterpreting the articles of the AATHP through the key strategy of the Haze-Free Roadmap. These two institutional processes led ASEAN to strengthen its practices to gradually build capacity for greater cooperation in addressing transboundary haze pollution.

This study analyzed the effects of psychological variability on environmental behavior stability from a behavioral economic perspective, regarding the process of consumers' environmental behavior. We focused on two points: (1) self-pluralism inhibits consistent environmental behavior, and (2) ego depletion reduces motivation for environmental behavior, even among eco-conscious individuals. Four types of environmental behaviors were selected: waste reduction, recycling, electricity saving, and purchasing energy-saving products. Multiple regression analysis was used to clarify the relationship between each behavior and psychological variability. This study identified the discrepancy between behavioral intentions and behavior, which was not discussed in previous research on psychological processes of environmental behavior, and indicated that the two psychological variables influence the reduction of environmental behavior frequency. In addition, some sociodemographic characteristics and environmental behavior types moderated the reduction in behavior frequency. These results indicated ways to increase the stability of an individual's environmental behavior, ultimately leading to a long-term upward trend in environmental behavior.

For a species reintroduction to be successful, understanding the minimum viable population number is important. We examined the occurrence of Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) on isolated islands to assess whether they can survive in small, isolated habitats. Spraints were investigated, and DNA analysis of the cytochrome b region was conducted, to determine if genetic differences existed between the island and mainland otter populations. Moreover, people living on 13 islands were interviewed for a questionnaire survey. Of the 13 islands, otters were confirmed to occur on nine. Three of these islands seemed too far (≥18 km) for otters to reach by swimming across the sea. Huksan Island is most isolated, with a straight distance of 65 km from the mainland, a sea-crossing distance of 31 km. Yeoseo Island is smallest of the islands, an area of 2.5 km². Our results validated that otter populations inhabited some of these islands. The genetic analyses of otter spraints detected four haplotypes. Furthermore, one type was found in feces from a river on the mainland, 60 km away from the coast. Isolated islands must be considered when establishing a plan to protect the otter population.

As the consumption of livestock products expands worldwide with the globalization of food, their production stresses the environment and poses challenges to humans, such as animal welfare issues. This study examines how the promotion of grazing dairy farming, especially milk production, can be achieved by changing consumer behavior, i.e., through a bottom-up approach. In particular, we will clarify how consumers' knowledge and experience can contribute to their purchasing behavior of grazing milk products. Specifically, we first examine how consumers' knowledge and experience of dairy farming are determined by their personal attributes in a path model. Then, using a choice experiment and a latent class model, we will identify consumers' responses to grazing milk products and examine how consumers can be segmented according to differences in their responses, focusing on the role of knowledge and experience. The analysis reveals that consumers can be classified into three segments, and that knowledge and experience play an important role in their segmentation.

In the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD), where frequent flooding, salinity and drought affect rice productivity, case studies of comprehensive spatio-temporal detection systems for long-term geospatial research are lacking. Thus, we developed a rule-based high-accuracy algorithm, termed Rice Phenology Detection System (RicePDS), for estimating spatio-temporal information on cropping intensity, sowing dates, and flowering dates of paddy fields using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data (2002–2020). We based these estimations on the vegetation, flood, surface temperature, and cloud signals of rice cropping systems in the VMD. RicePDS could be useful for deriving the spatio-temporal distribution of cropping intensity, rice area, and durations of sowing and flowering periods for analysis. The estimated paddy rice area and multi-year agricultural statistical trends in rice cultivation were highly accurate.

In Japan, the capture of deer and wild boar is being promoted to mitigate wildlife damage, but because there is no system to use them as food resources, disposal of their carcasses has become a problem. There is a movement to promote the use of captured animals as game meat. In this study, we investigated three areas (Fujimi Town, Nagano Prefecture; Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture; and Misato Town, Shimane Prefecture) where captured animals are converted into food resources for sale. We determined the current situation regarding the conversion of captured animals into food resources, and the importance of food resource utilization was assessed by focusing on the transactions between hunters and game-meat processing plants. The results showed that in two areas, the conversion of animals into food resources had begun as a mitigation measure to overcome problems involved with the disposal of animals caught in traps. Currently, the captured animals that are sold as food resources are mainly those caught by trapping because of the need to guarantee production history through live capture and rapid primary processing. Because the number of trappers is increasing, the importance of trapped wildlife as a food resource is expected to increase in the future.