Choice of Organization Managing and Utilizing Japanese Coastal Resources Using Ahp Technique

In Japan, common fishery rights are granted by prefectural governor only to local fisheries cooperative associations (FCAs). Coastal resources like abalones are utilized by local fishers as members of FCAs. Fishery rights are deemed to be real rights and any person encroaching upon this right is subject to fine. Therefore, common fishery rights should be granted to proper organization under the understanding of the public citizens. I gathered replies from 800 citizens to a questionnaire via the internet and applied the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in group-decision to select proper organization. The decision goal is to choose the most suitable organization to manage and utilize coastal resources like abalones and etc. Factors to be considered (criteria) are seafood's (1)stability in supply and quality, (2)low price, (3)brand image and (4)legality in resource utilization. Alternative organizations to be chosen are (a)administrative body, (b)cooperative association, (c)private company and (d)illegal organization. The criteria are pair-wise compared to how important they are, and points of priority are calculated as (4) is highest, followed by (1). The 4 candidates of organization are compared with respect to each above criterion. With respect to criteria (1), (2) and (3), (b) is highly regarded, and only in criterion (4), (a) is highest. According to the judgments through procedure of synthesizing, (b) is regarded as the most suitable organization followed by (a). This result shows that the Japanese public citizens have understood the situation of coastal fisheries and community based co-management on coastal resources so far