Saving Fish Owls: Conservation Ideology and Community River Resource Use in Eastern Hokkaido, Japan

• In Event: Dams, Fish, and Birds: Citizen Participation, Scientific Knowledge, and Environmental Governance in Japanese Watersheds

Abstract

In 1994, Nijibetsu Kor-Kamuy No Kai was established as a community-based organization in Eastern Hokkaido for the protection of Blakiston’s fish owls — a raptor species that lives in riparian forests. The group has helped restore rivers for fish (food for the owls) and procure the bird’s nesting habitat by setting artificial nesting boxes and planting native deciduous trees that may provide natural nesting sites in the long-term. Lauded as a grassroots movement to protect this owl species, the organization brings together local fishermen and dairy ranchers across the Nishibetsu River watershed. A confluence of factors have shaped this organization: “fish-breeding-forest” (uotsukirin) initiatives of the fishery industry, the dairy industry’s responses to market realities, and the conservation work of environmental organizations. This presentation examines the claim that the ideology of wildlife conservation (the community’s desire to save the owls) unites this confluence of divergent interests in the adoption of sustainable practice across multiple administrative jurisdictions. By examining how owls may supply institutional capital, it asks what the role of ideology is in the cost-benefit analysis of committing to new rules and practices for a sustainable future.

Author

• Takehiro Watanabe, Sophia University