Marine Ecosystem Services: Perception of Residents from Remote Islands, Taketomi Town

Marine ecosystem services provide various benefits to people. In order to receive those benefits sustainably, conservation of marine environment is an important measure, and how to motivate people to marine conservation would be one of the keys to secure sustainable receipt of marine ecosystem services. This study explores perception of marine ecosystem services by residents of remote islands, namely Taketomi Town in Japan and how the perception would influence their behavioural intentions for marine conservation. A questionnaire survey was administered to the residents, and factor analysis and Structural Equation Model were applied to analyse data from 344 respondents. The results show that respondents perceive marine ecosystem services in four categories, namely “Benefits closely related to daily lives”, “Benefits from supporting services”, “Benefits from regulating services”, and “Benefits irrelevant to daily lives”. Among the four categories, “Benefits from regulating services” is the most influential to enhance behavioural intentions for marine conservation. The perception of marine ecosystem services by respondents of Taketomi Town and their influence on behavioural intentions for marine conservation are different from the results of previous studies administered to residents in the main island Honshu, Japan. This shows possibility that perception of marine ecosystem services and motivation for behavioural intention for marine conservation would relate to their connectednesspossibility to the sea.