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Although Japan’s planted forest resources are mature, efficient timber production and reforest postharvest are hindered by the small-scale forest ownership and private forest owners’ (PFOs’) low willingness to engage in forest management. A New Scheme of Forest Management (NSFM) has been established under which Japan’s municipalities can aggregate forest management rights which PFOs with low future intentions for forest management. Therefore, this study explores the socioeconomic factors that determine PFOs’ future intentions for forest management and examines NSFM challenges. PFOs were surveyed via questionnaires in two regions of Miyazaki Prefecture with different forest ownership sizes. The results showed that forest size and the presence of successors affect PFOs’ future intention for forest management. In addition, PFOs with low future intentions were less aware of their forests, and their forests were the source of reforest abandonment. Although aggregating forest management rights of PFOs with low future intention by the municipalities may contribute to sustainable forest management, the increased workload on municipalities is a challenge. Overall, accessibility to sufficient decision-making information is a prerequisite for evaluating PFOs’ future intention to manage their forests.

The sustainable development of micro-hydropower (MHP) plants is a challenge for rural electrification in developing countries, especially in Indonesia, which has diverse ethnic groups, cultures, and traditions in several isolated locations due to its complex terrain. The uniqueness of a social situation in a location can affect the sustainable electrification development. This study aimed to assess the sustainable development of MHP plants in the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar, which has unique traditions and cultural characteristics. The assessment was conducted using the sustainable development indicator (SDI) method, the Ilskog method, which can include social, economic, environmental, technical, and institutional dimensions. Data were collected through field investigations and qualitative dialogs to understand the culture and ways of thinking. The results of the Ilskog method analysis revealed that the environmental dimensions had the highest scores, whereas economic dimensions had the lowest scores, indicating that the cultural background of the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar impacted the SDI scores. This was attributable to the decision of Kasepuhan’s traditional leader, which strengthened the community commitment to renewable energy use. However, the cultural background adversely impacted monetary income to sustain MHP plants. This study proposed that community innovation and microcredit availability could improve productive activities, resulting in better economic conditions to sustain MHP plants.

The purpose of this chapter is to review progress in our understanding of human behavior and decision-making relevant to future earth research agenda, and propose Decision Science as a hub of knowledge networks connecting disciplinary and interdisciplinary sciences with the practice of problem-solving. This review is composed of four sections. First, we describe the conceptual framework of “decision science for a sustainable society” and argue that evolutionary biology of the human nature is key to construct this framework. Second, we review how our group decision-making often fails due to various cognitive biases and argue that participatory approaches of co-design and co-production do not guarantee reasonable decision-making. Third, we review success stories of problem-solving in local communities and consider how we can connect those successes in local communities to successful national and global decision-making. Fourth, learning from both failures and successes, we argue that the adaptive learning of society is a process enabling us to transform our society toward a sustainable future. We review some positive global trends toward sustainability and consider the cognitive processes and behavioral mechanisms behind those trends that would provide clues for finding successful ways to transform our society.

Industrial Tree Plantation (ITP) in Indonesia has been controversial due to its significant environmental, economic, and social impacts and the severe conflicts among stakeholders. Therefore, it is crucially important to discuss the fundamental structure of the conflicts to promote going forward. We introduce the concept of “legitimacy” and discuss the (1) inequality of the landholding structure and (2) legal pluralism established by historical circumstances as the fundamental structure of the conflicts. Our discussions present some key lessons in promoting collaboration among stakeholders. The first lesson is that the degree of interest and priority for problems differs among stakeholders. Therefore, an understanding of these differences is the first step toward collaboration. The second lesson is about the importance of considering history. Awareness of the problem, interpretation of the historical facts, and evaluation of other stakeholders by a certain stakeholder change over time. Therefore, to start a collaboration, it is necessary to build a consensus among stakeholders as a time point to go back to in order to discuss the problem. The third lesson is that a procedure for data presentation agreeable among stakeholders as independent, neutral, and fair is essential for their collaborations. Especially in cases where conflicts among stakeholders are intensive, it appears that confidence in and interpretation of presented data are different for each stakeholder. Therefore, data presentation agreeable to all stakeholders is essential to promote their collaborations. Unlike conventional scientific research, scientists are required to uphold various values existing in society to collaborate with stakeholders in transdisciplinary research of Future Earth.

Correction to Chapter 1 in: Yahara T. et al. (2021) Decision Science for Future Earth: A Conceptual Framework. In: Yahara T. (eds) Decision Science for Future Earth. Springer, Singapore. 10.1007/978-981-15-8632-3_1

The diverse socio-cultural conditions in Indonesia can make it difficult to develop sustainable micro-hydro power (MHP) generation in rural areas. However, the existing framework of sustainable development indicators to assess MHP sustainability does not include indicators for locations with traditional characteristics. This study aimed to develop indicators related to the specific cultural features for evaluating the sustainability of MHP generation. The identification of indicators was accomplished through field investigations and literature studies. Thirty-one experts in the Delphi method validated the indicators. The results revealed three indicators related to specific traditional characteristics and importance to the sustainability of MHP generation, i.e., electricity-supported cultural activities, customary rules of environmental protection, and directive of a traditional leader. These indicators can be elaborated with the existing framework and expected to increase sustainability assessment efforts for MHP generation in remote locations.