Marine Protected Areas

There are two types of marine-protected areas (MPAs) in Japan: Legal MPAs (LMPAs) and Autonomous MPAs (AMPAs). The former MPAs are established directly based on the prescriptions of legislative laws and set by the government. The latter MPAs are more site specific and responsive to the local socioecological conditions, and are established based on local initiatives. Fishers play a core role in their planning and implementation processes. Four cases of Autonomous MPAs presented in this chapter show the diversity of their objectives, participants, and implementation processes. After discussing the objectives of MPAs, the advantages and weak points of AMPAs are summarized. As other initiatives for ecosystem conservation by local fishing people in Japan, concepts of Sato-umi (the seas as part of one’s homeland or community) and Uo-tsuki-rin (fish conservation forests) are briefly described.