Satoumi: Re‐connecting people to nature for sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones

Abstract

Abstract In addition to the management of marine protected areas, the management of non‐protected areas is integral to sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones. The human–nature connection has drawn increasing attention in the Western society because the disconnect from nature is a root cause of ecological crises and unsustainability. Re‐connecting is a promising avenue. We propose satoumi creation as an approach for the sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones by re‐connecting people to nature. Satoumi is a Japanese term describing a desirable state of coastal zones with enhanced biodiversity and productivity realized by active human intervention. Although satoumi is promising, previous discussions have been narrowly focused on ecosystems. We reconsidered satoumi from a social‐ecological system (SES) perspective to elucidate the full spectrum of its key features. The human–nature connection is an integral part of satoumi. Satoumi engenders relational values in addition to instrumental and intrinsic values. Satoumi as a state is one thing and its creation another. We cannot merely transplant a successful satoumi to other locations. Furthermore, because coastal SESs are complex, systemic transformation into satoumi requires identifying deep leverage points. We propose a certain marine education at schools that could function as a deep leverage point. The education corresponds to the three realms of deep leverage for sustainability transformation: re‐structure, re‐connect and re‐think. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.