Integrated Approach for Coral Reef Management in Okinawa, Japan

Abstract

According to the Status of the Coral Reefs of the World, approximately 16% of the world’s coral reefs had been effectively destroyed through unprecedented coral bleaching during the major El Niño/La Niña shifts in the global climate in 1997-98. Coral reefs are also under major human pressures of sediment and nutrient pollution from the land, over-fishing and especially destructive fishing, and engineering developments are removed or controlled. Therefore WSSD (The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg ) recommended that to sustain coral reefs will require integrated coastal and watershed management, the establishment of networks of marine protected areas, and the necessary institutional capacity building to foster these management approaches and help deliver them on the ground. Similar requests were made at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban in 2003. The Ministry of the Environment, Japan designated MPA in coral reefs in 1977 and has tried to protect the area and surrounding waters through monitoring, research, public awareness and environmental education. As a new approach for the nature conservation, the Ministry established the Law for the Protection of Nature Restoration in 2002 to promote the integrated management.