Coastal Wetlands Restoration Public Perception and Community Development Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability Series

This book examines a wide range of innovative approaches for coastal wetlands restoration and explains how we should use both academic research and practitioners? findings to influence learning, practice, policy and social change.

For conservationists, tidal flats and coastal wetlands are regarded as among the most important areas to conserve for the health of the entire oceanic environment. As the number of restoration projects all over the world increases, this book provides a unique assessment of coastal wetland restorations by examining existing community perceptions and by drawing on the knowledge and expertise of both academics and practitioners. Based on a four-year sociological study across three different cultural settings ? England, Japan and Malaysia ? the book investigates how citizens perceive the existing environment; how they discuss the risks and benefits of restoration projects; how perceptions change over time; and how governmental and non-governmental organisations work with the various community perceptions on the ground. By comparing and contrasting the results from these three countries, the book offers guidance for future conservation and restoration activities, with a specific view to working with local citizens to avoid conflict and obtain long-term investment.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of coastal restoration, wetland conservation and citizen science, as well as environmental sociology and environmental management more broadly. It will also be of use to practitioners and policymakers involved in environmental restoration projects.

1. Studying social perceptions of risk and benefits of coastal wetland restorations: Its importance and complexities 2. Coastal wetland restoration in the world: Needs, challenges and benefits. Case Study A. 3. To enable communities to engage with the biggest European tidal flat and saltmarsh restoration project 4. People’s perceptions towards the Steart Marshes Creation Project through stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. Case Study B. 5. Local power through the Mangrove Rehabilitation Project in Kuala Gula, Malaysia 6. Community perceptions towards the risks and benefits of a mangrove restoration project: Learning from a case study in Malaysia. Case Study C. 7. The Ago Bay experience from a local government perspective 8. Creating the first tidal flat restoration project in Japan in Ago Bay 9. Tidal flat restoration projects in Shima City and citizens’ perceptions 10. Opportunities for coastal wetland restoration and community development for the future

Hiromi Yamashita is a professor at the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), Japan, visiting associate professor at Nagoya University Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Japan, visiting associate professor, University of Cambridge, UK, and advisory board member for the Ramsar Regional Centre-East Asia.