Professor Naotomo Nakahara of the Department of Ocean Policy and Culture, Assistant Professor Shigehide Iwata of the Department of Marine Biological Resources, and Professor Xiaobo Lou of the Department of Ocean Policy and Culture received the 2023 Best Paper Award from the Japan Coastal Zone Society.

【 Winner 】
Naotomo Nakahara (Professor, Department of Ocean Policy and Culture)
Shigehide Iwata (Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Bioresources)
Lou Xiaobo (Vice-president·Professor, Department of Ocean Policy and Culture)

[ Title of award-winning research ]
“Economic value of coastal ecosystems and the impact of awareness”, Journal of the Coastal Zone Society (Journal of the Coastal Zone Society)2021YearsVol.34,No.4）

[Outline of Awards]
In recent years, the blue economy, which is a concept of ocean development and economic development, has been spreading around the world, and related research and policies are being advanced in many countries.This wave is also hitting Japan, and the need and importance of appropriate economic evaluation of marine environment and ecosystem values ??is growing more than ever.

Against this backdrop, this paper uses selective conjoint analysis to examine the awareness of coastal ecosystems in Izena Island, Okinawa Prefecture, which is considered to be one of the "sea areas of high importance from the perspective of biodiversity." We analyzed the impact ofThe results revealed that the marginal willingness to pay differs depending on the level of awareness, and that the statistical reliability of the evaluation results also changes depending on the level of awareness.Furthermore, based on these considerations, we propose an estimation method that takes awareness into account.

In this way, this paper provides a new evaluation method and knowledge to improve the accuracy of economic evaluation of coastal ecosystems, and its usefulness is highly evaluated. The facts and discussions were recognized as making a significant contribution to coastal area research, and were awarded the Academic Paper Award.

【Related Links】
Japan Coastal Zone Society