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In spite of the growing attention towards the overall quality of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), most empirical studies so far have narrowly focused their assessments on specific natural or social features and governing structures. In response, this study analyzed multi-use MPAs in the eelgrass restoration site in Hinase, Okayama, Japan in their environmental, economic and social dimensions. Considering changes in time and space as well as internal and external influences, the study faced many difficulties in dealing with the dynamics of MPA environments. At the same time, it showed clearly the control over development and fishery activities by several MPA relevant regulations, improvements of the ecological function by the regrowth of eelgrass, an increase in some fish species due to the same regrowth, and expansion of social networks deriving from the restoration activity. The study also revealed convincing evidence that self-motivated MPA management practice by fishers under the Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries (TURFs), in conjunction with other mixed management systems such as Satoumi, could lead to flexible and long-term efforts for improving food security, livelihoods, and the marine environment. This study highlights the importance of comprehensive research to deepen the understanding of the structure and functions of complex and diverse marine ecosystems and social systems.

Climate change (CC) impacts are threatening around the globe and they are not limited to developing countries. CC adaptation in developing countries is mostly focused on community-based adaptation to help the poorest and the most vulnerable societies by empowering communities to become resilient to CC impacts (Huq and Reid, 2007; Ayers and Huq, 2009). In contrast, developed countries are presumed to have a low vulnerability to CC (Ford and Berrang-Ford, 2011). As a result, not many studies are conducted in the developed countries to see the effectiveness of policies and actions taken for CC adaptation. However, as the adaptation is location specific and solutions and approaches are diverse (Agrawal, 2010), it is worthwhile understanding cases in developed countries.

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most climate change (CC) vulnerable regions in the world due to the relatively high proportion of its population depending on climate-sensitive sectors, dense population living in CC vulnerable geographical locations, and poor development of risk-governance systems. The national communications submitted by the developing countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed gaps in its capacity, including research, to effectively cope with CC impacts (Kreft et al., 2011). The need for enhanced adaptation research and policy-making capacity in developing Asia was recognised in a series of stakeholder consultations conducted by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the work was carried out at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (Pereira et al., 2011).

Study region Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. Study focus The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the water, energy, and food nexus and regions of study, nexus keywords and stakeholders in order to understand the current state of nexus research. New hydrological insights Through selected 37 projects, four types of nexus research were identified including water–food, water–energy–food, water–energy, and climate related. Among them, six projects (16%) had a close linkage with water–food, 11 (30%) with water–energy–food, 12 (32%) with water–energy, and eight (22%) with climate. The regions were divided into Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. North America and Oceania had a tendency to focus on a specific nexus type, water–energy (46%) and climate (43%), while Africa had less focus on water–energy (7%). Regarding keywords, out of 37 nexus projects, 16 projects listed keywords in their articles. There were 84 keywords in total, which were categorized by the author team depending on its relevance to water, food, energy, climate, and combination of water–food–energy–climate, and 40 out of 84 keywords were linked with water and only 4 were linked with climate. As for stakeholders, 77 out of 137 organizations were related to research and only two organizations had a role in media.