Forests and their related landscapes are vital for ecological services such as supplying lumber, maintaining biodiversity, and providing recreational sites. However, the multiplicity of stakeholders involved often elicits conflicts of interest when setting management plans or implementing policies and presents complexities that need to be better considered in the case of protected areas, especially in forested Japanese national parks.
Such intricacies indicate that sustainable natural resource management demands thorough comprehension about human–nature interactions aside from the environment itself. The governance of resources should be a social system wherein there is a consensus building approach to natural resource management by various parties such as governments, local residents, citizens, private operators, and others. As I have pursued governance studies within the context of resource conservation and sustainable resource use, I intend to contribute to solving institutional and social conservation challenges from the standpoint of policy sciences.
In terms of relevant research experience, I have previously conducted studies on civic participation in natural resource management using social research methods, and I intend to conduct future investigations that focus on forest recreational spaces such as natural and urban parks while making use of my practical experience as a landscape engineer.