Transformative change of paddy rice systems for biodiversity: A case study of the crested ibis certified rice system in Sado Island, Japan

ABSTRACT

Innovation history analysis of the transformation of paddy rice system on Sado Island from 1999 to 2019, which progressed with the reintroduction of crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), identified three key levers, i.e. multi-stakeholder collaboration, integrated local policies, and incentives, which, interacting one another and with seven leverage points and six exogenous factors, drove the development and deployment of the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme, resulting in a quarter of all staple rice paddy area on the island being certified by 2016. The results suggest two potential levers to further expand the certified area beyond this equilibrium for a wider transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture innovation system
• certification
• direct payment
• multi-level perspective
• traditional knowledge

Introduction

Evidence is accumulating on the contributions of environment-friendly agriculture, which maintains a balance between food production and other ecosystem services at the landscape scale, to ecosystem health (García-Martín et al. 2022; Kremen and Merenlender 2018). However, individual farmers alone can make limited contributions to positive ecosystem changes, thus requiring collective efforts at a landscape scale and food systems transformation (Dudley and Alexander 2017). Transformative change (TC), a term increasingly used in the biodiversity context, is a key concept for exploring this possibility (Keck 2021). TC is defined as “a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals, and values,” and is imperative to curb the world’s rapidly disappearing biodiversity, and ultimately to realize a sustainable world (2019). With this backdrop, the draft Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD 2021) proposes targets for realizing TC. Ahead of the implementation of the Post-2020 Framework in the coming decade, empirical knowledge on options to realize TC is becoming increasingly important.

TC to maintain global biodiversity should aim for six future visions of human-nature interactions (Figure 1, right box), which can be achieved by acting on five levers and eight leverage points (Figure 1, left and center boxes) (Chan et al. 2020). TC studies beyond biodiversity science use different terminologies with similar connotations, such as “transition” (Elzen et al. 2012; Geels 2002) and “system innovation” (Geels 2005). A synthesis of these studies identified their common features, e.g., changes that transcend various sectors and scales and a radical paradigm shift, which are contrasted to an incremental change (Salomaa and Juhola 2020). The synthesis further pointed out the ambiguity of prior studies in the definition of TC as well as in the societal vision that TC aims to achieve, and called for more empirical studies. In reality, the aims and forms of TC can be different in different social, economic, and cultural contexts. Thus, the accumulation of empirical research on TC from different parts of the world would help deepen understanding of the variety of TC.

Figure 1. Levers and leverage points for pathways to realize biodiversity vision.

By authors based on (Chan et al., 2020)

Different analytical frameworks are used for empirical studies of TC, among which the multi-level perspective (MLP) MLP is the most frequently applied (Zolfagharian et al. 2019). MLP locates the socio-technical system (regime) being studied at the meso-level, and describes the system reconfiguration process in its interactions with micro-level niche innovations as well as with the macro-level socio-technical landscape (Figure 2) (Geels 2005). Geels (2019) breaks the reconfiguration process into four phases. The first phase is represented by radical niche innovations, including entrepreneurs and novel business models (Kemp, Schot, and Hoogma 1998), occurring at micro-level niches at the periphery of a regime. Typically, niche innovations are initially unstable and fragile, requiring repeated testing and modifications. The second phase is characterized by the standardization of innovation design through iterative experiments, reciprocal learning, networks and shared visions among multiple actors, as well as stable resource supply. In the third phase, innovations become mainstreamed into the meso-level socio-technical system. Not a few innovations lapse or end at this phase facing various economic, political, or cultural barriers. Finally, in the fourth phase, the old socio-technical system is replaced by a new one in which the innovations are firmly established.

Figure 2. Multi-level perspectives framework.

Reprinted from Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 39, Geels, F.W., Socio-Technical Transitions to Sustainability: A Review of Criticisms and Elaborations of the Multi-Level Perspective, 187–201, Copyright (2019), with permission from Elsevier

In addition, the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) provides a tailored framework to analyze the TC process in the agricultural sector, which therefore has been used in empirical analyses of agricultural system change across the world (Kishioka et al. 2017; Klerkx, Aarts, and Leeuwis 2010; Spielman, Ekboir, and Davis 2009; Yang, Klerkx, and Leeuwis 2014). AIS considers not only agricultural production but the entire product value chain, including distribution and consumption, and the interactions of various policies and actors involved in it (Klerkx, van Mierlo, and Leeuwis 2012). AIS can be interpreted as a component of MLP, particularly the second phase when niche innovations are stabilized and anchored in the mainstream system through experimenting and interacting with various actors (Elzen et al. 2012). AIS emphasizes the importance of the interplay between top-down institutional changes and bottom-up niche innovations, as well as of the “intermediaries” that facilitate collaboration among different actors in this process.

This paper presents an empirical case study, from a TC lens, on the development and deployment of biodiversity-friendly paddy rice systems in Sado Island, Japan, which progressed in an effort to rehabilitate crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) (Figure 3), a charismatic bird once extinct in Japan. This effort falls under one of the six visions of TC for biodiversity (Chan et al. 2020), i.e., “Feeding humanity without deteriorating nature on land” (Figure 1, right box). The study investigates the factors that drove or hampered the TC process using the MLP and AIS frameworks and referring to the TC lever and leverage point concepts.

Figure 3. Crested ibis searching feed animals on a rice paddy. photo by ministry of the environment, Japan.

Photo by Ministry of the Environment, Japan

Materials and methods

Study site

Sado Island was the last habitat of crested ibis in Japan before its extinction in the wild in 1981, and remains as the sole breeding site in Japan even after its recovery in wild since 2008 onward. The Island lies northwest and approximately 32 km offshore the Japan’s mainland (Figure 4). The Island has 856 km² surface area with complex terrain represented by the central plain, covered mostly by rice paddies (101 km²) and partially by built-up area (21 km²), and forested mountains (286 km²) at the north-western and the south-eastern part of the island. Sado City took the current shape in 2004 by a merger of the former ten municipalities on the Island. The City has a total population of 53,952 as of February 2020.

Figure 4. Location of and land use on Sado Island.

The map indicates the locations of Japanese prefectures mentioned in the innovation history in medium grey.

Until the mid-20^th century, crested ibis had been commonly seen throughout East Asia, including Japan, eastern Russia, the Korean Peninsula, and China, on wetlands nearby human settlements, particularly rice paddies (Li, Tian, and Li 2009; Yamagishi 2009). The bird, thereafter, rapidly disappeared and shifted its habitat to remote and mountainous areas, which coincided with widespread hunting and modernized rice farming methods including the use of organochlorine and organomercury pesticides (Nakajima 1974; Namae 1994). Evidence has shown the negative impacts of these pesticides, as well as improved drainage and other paddy modernizations, on the bird’s breeding success (Ding 2007). These aspects of modernized paddy rice systems drove the bird’s rapid population decline, constrained its habitat to Sado Island and consequently led to its extinction in the wild from Japan in 1981 (Li, Tian, and Li 2009; MOE 2019; Yamagishi 2009).

In 1999, the successful captive breeding of a pair of crested ibis introduced from China to Sado Island put the breeding efforts on track, creating a momentum for future reintroduction to the wild on the Island (MOE 2009). Releasing of birds from cages to the wild was first attempted in 2008 and continues to the present. Breeding in the wild has been observed since 2012. In 2019 when the wild population reached 396 (Figure 5), the bird was downlisted from “EW” (extinct in the wild) to class “IA” threatened (critically endangered) on the Japanese national Red List (MOE 2019). Concurrently, focused efforts were made by various actors to restore habitats and to address the direct and indirect drivers responsible for the past extinction.

Figure 5. Transformative change phase division based on the progress of crested ibis breeding and rewilding and the production of the certified rice.

Among these efforts, the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme played an important role in the restoration of rice paddy ecosystems (Komachi 2017), providing a practical option to many rice producers throughout Sado to support the crested ibis rewilding efforts (Uenishi 2019). Therefore, this paper investigates the transformation of the paddy rice system in Sado, particularly focusing on the development and propagation of the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme.

Innovation history analysis

This study employed innovation history analysis (Douthwaite and Ashby 2005), a social science method to qualitatively analyze an innovation process using chronological records of major events and the actors involved that are collected through multi-stakeholder workshops. (Spielman, Ekboir, and Davis 2009)The method is widely adopted in empirical studies of agricultural system change in different parts of the world (Kishioka et al. 2017; Klerkx and Aarts 2013; Klerkx, Aarts, and Leeuwis 2010; Schiller et al. 2020; Yang, Klerkx, and Leeuwis 2014)

For data gathering, we used semi-structured interviews with the major actors involved in the certification scheme, instead of workshops. Whereas a workshop enables fact triangulation through multi-stakeholder dialog, interviews offer an advantage in gathering detailed information from individual informants (Crandall et al. 2018). A wealth of documented information available on the present case enabled fact triangulation. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the certification scheme (Table 1). We first interviewed the Sado City government officers in charge to identify key actors in the certification scheme and subsequently interviewed these key actors (see Appendix 1 for the key interview questions). We also collected relevant secondary data and documents from interviewees.

Table 1. Key informants interviewed and their role in the crested ibis rice certification system.

Organization name	Role	Interview date
Agricultural Policy Office, Industry and Tourism Department, Sado City government	Owns and overseas the crested ibis certified rice system	4 December 2017; 15 May 2018; 18December 2020
JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperative) Sado	Sado rice wholesale, including the crested ibis certified rice, and farmers capacity building	15 May 2018; 17 December 2020
Sado Nature Protection Ranger Office, Ministry of the Environment	Captive breeding and rewilding of crested ibis	15 May 2018; 18 December 2020
Agricultural Production and Horticulture office, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department, Niigata Prefectural government	Support to municipal governments in the prefecture, including the implementation of the national direct payment scheme for environmentally-friendly agriculture	12 December 2020 (phone)
Sado farmers group for the protection of crested ibis paddies	A farmers’ group that developed the prototype of biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices and biodiversity monitoring activities	14 May 2018; 17 December 2020
Sado Institute for Wildlife Storytelling	Crested ibis monitoring, habitat conservation and public outreach	5 December 2017 15 May 2018

From the acquired data, we first clarified the timeline of the TC process that represents major events in the course of the development and deployment of the certification system. The timeline was then explained by actions taken by various actors and relevant time-series quantitative data. We then divided the whole process into phases referring to the MLP framework and identified the key enablers of and impediments to phase shift. Further, we interpreted these key enablers and impediments as levers and leverage points referring to the nine guiding questions on leverage points for sustainability transformations (Leventon, Abson, and Lang 2021), and examined the causal link between levers, leverage points, exogenous factors, and the TC process.

Results

Application of the MLP framework to the innovation history of the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme divided the TC process into four phases. The first phase, i.e., radical niche innovations, is represented by experimentation with rice farming methods to rehabilitate the crested ibis’ prey animals and biodiversity monitoring by a farmers’ group between 2001 and 2003, motivated by the first successful captive breeding of crested ibis in 1999. The second phase, i.e., stabilization of innovation design, spans from the establishment of Sado City in 2004 to the introduction of the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme in 2008. The third phase, diffusion, was observed between 2009 and 2020 when the certified paddy area gradually increased and peaked out at 25% of the total rice paddy area on the island. The fourth phase, full system deployment, has yet to be reached considering the gradually decreasing certified paddy area after the peak at 25% in 2016. To identify the barriers for a wider system change, we separated the period from 2013 onwards, when deployment of the certification scheme began to saturate and decline, from the early third phase of 2009 to 2012.

A timeline of major events in the innovation history and the major efforts corresponding to levers and leverage points are presented in Figure 6. Efforts falling under three of the five levers and seven of the eight leverage points were found. Of these, lever B “coordination across sectors and jurisdictions” is represented by different multi-stakeholder committees relevant to crested ibis rehabilitation in Sado. Table 3 presents the member entities of these committees. Lever E “environmental law and implementation” includes relevant government policies and plans for crested ibis rehabilitation. Among other leverage points, Figure 6 shows leverage point h “promote education and knowledge generation and sharing” as a standalone category. This was because many efforts falling under this leverage point were embedded in multiple levers or could not be easily linked to specific levers.

Figure 6. Timeline of the major events that contributed to the development and diffusion of the crested ibis rice certification scheme.

Events were clustered under exogenous factors, three levers and seven leverage points referring to (Chan et al., 2020). Lower-case letters in parentheses after event names refer the leverage point (LP) categories shown in Figure 1. The black four-pointed star (✦) indicates the year of a one-off event, while the grey band shows the period of a consecutive event.

Table 2. Stakeholders and committees that played important roles in the crested ibis rice certification scheme^.a

Stakeholder name/type	Committee name
	The Environment Rehabilitation Vision Development Committee	Crested Ibis Rewilding Coordination Committee	The Sado Rice Marketing Strategy Development Committee	Committee for the Island Development for the Coexistence of People and Crested Ibis	Crested Ibis Rice Certification Committee	Committee for Developing the Agriculture and Farmland Strategy for Rewilding Crested Ibis	The Sado Biodiversity Strategy Promotion Committee
Ministry of the Environment	+	+		+		+	+
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	+	+		+		++
Forestry Agency				+
Niigata Prefectural government	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Sado City government	+^b	+	+	++	++	+	++
Japan Agriculture Cooperative Sado	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Research institutes and universities	+ (1)	+ (1)		+ (6)		+ (4)	+ (1)
Individual farmers		+ (2)	+	+ (1)	+ (2)	+	+ (2)
Local business associations	+ (2)	+ (2)		+ (5)	+	+ (2)	+ (1)
Private companies	+ (2)	+ (3)		+ (6)		+ (2)	+ (3)
Civil society organizations	+ (1)	++ (22)		+ (17)	+ (3)		+ (1)
Other	+ (1)

a ++ Indicates a stakeholder organization that serves as the secretariat for the respective committee organizations; and + indicates participant organizations. The numbers in round brackets () show the number of organizations or individuals that fall under respective stakeholder type.

b Then municipalities in south-eastern Sado Island including Niibo village and Ryotsu city, which were integrated into Sado City in 2004.

Source: Documents provided by Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Sado City government.

Table 3. The crested ibis rice certification standards.

Standard	Item
Habitat creation farming methods	Adopt at least one from among the five farming methods: Paddy margin ditch digging (to keep freshwater microhabitats during dry season) Paddy fishway Winter paddy flooding Paddy biotope Organic farming
Wildlife monitoring (twice a year)
Reduction of agrochemicals by half (including pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers)
Eco-farmer certificate by Niigata Prefectural governmen	Soil fertilization and agrochemical reduction plan complies with the Niigata Prefecture’s guidance on the introduction of sustainable agricultural methods
Produced on Sado Island
Causeway vegetation management without herbicides

1. This criterion was removed from the certification standards in 2020.

2. This criterion was added in 2017.

The following sub-sections 3.1 to 3.4 provide the narrative for each of the four phases of the TC process and describe the factors that contributed to phase shift, focusing on the events presented in Figure 6 and the roles of key actors presented in Table 3.

Phase 1: radical niche innovations (1999–2003)

The experimentation in biodiversity-friendly farming methods and biodiversity monitoring by a group of seven farmers started in 2001 represents the first phase, i.e., radical niche innovations. This was motivated by the progress in the crested ibis rehabilitation project under the Act on Conservation of Endangered Species, particularly the successful breeding of a crested ibis pair donated by China in 1999. This success led to the establishment of a multi-stakeholder committee attended by relevant national ministries and agencies, local governments and other actors in 2000 (Table 2). The committee published the “Sado Environmental Rehabilitation Vision” in 2003, which clarified a high-level goal to establish a wild crested ibis population of 60 birds in southeastern Sado by 2015, as well as three thematic visions, i.e., the rewilding vision for crested ibis breeding and release; the nature restoration vision for habitat restoration; and the societal vision for changing people’s awareness and behavior. The Crested Ibis Rewilding Coordination Committee was set up in 2003 to promote cooperation between stakeholders toward realizing these visions.

Concurrently, the Medaka’s School, a civil society group based outside Sado Island that was attending the committee meetings, suggested to the then mayor of Niibo Village, the last known habitat of the wild crested ibis on Sado, promoting rice farming methods to restore crested ibis feed fauna with a view to its future rewilding. The mayor relayed the message to farmers, resulting in the establishment of a group of seven farmers in the former Niibo Village and Ryotsu City, namely the Sado Farmers Group for the Protection of Crested Ibis Paddies, and their experimentation with biodiversity-friendly farming methods.

The initial trial of no-till organic rice farming and biodiversity monitoring confirmed increased animal species with substantial yield loss. The Niibo Village government paid compensation for the loss. A series of reflexive experiments with various farming methods and biodiversity monitoring showed the contribution of winter paddy flooding and paddy margin ditches to increased animal species and populations in rice paddies. The paddy margin ditch is a traditional farming method mainly used on rice terraces on Sado Island to increase the temperature of cold spring water (Nishikawa 2015).

Phase 2: innovation stabilization (2004–2007)

The Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme, formally introduced by Sado City government in 2007, adopted the biodiversity-friendly rice farming methods and farmers’ biodiversity monitoring as its certification standards (Table 3). This characterizes the second phase, i.e., innovation stabilization.

Two exogenous events contributed to this development. One was the establishment of Sado City in March 2004 by a merger of all ten municipalities on Sado Island. The founding mayor of Sado City led the development of the Eco-island Development Plan and the Sado City Basic Environment Plan, which highlighted the crested ibis rewilding goal of 60 birds by 2015 in accordance with the Sado Environmental Rehabilitation Vision (see sub-section 3.1). To support implementing these plans, the Sado City Fund for Crested Ibis Habitat Restoration was established. Prior to the merger, citizens’ support for crested ibis conservation was limited to the south-eastern part of Sado Island. The merger and the city government’s focused and island-wide policy for rewilding crested ibis gradually expanded the support for crested ibis conservation to people all across the Island.

The other event was catastrophic salt-wind damage on rice production in Sado caused by Typhoon Megi in 2004. The plunging supply of rice from Sado resulted in a loss of Sado rice retailers throughout Japan, with no recovery over the following two years. To recover the Sado rice sales, the Sado City government, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) Sado and rice producers joined to develop a unique Sado rice brand using the crested ibis as a symbol. Subsequently JA Sado expanded its role to support marketing and brand development. The cooperation among these actors evolved to establish the Sado Rice Marketing Strategy Development Committee (Table 2) in 2005. Furthermore, the JA Sado Rice Producers Convention in 2006 adopted a resolution on environmental-friendly Sado rice production that set a goal of agrochemical reduction by 30%. Thereafter the reduction goal was raised to 50% when the first release of the captive-bred crested ibis was scheduled in 2008. A JA Sado official reflected on how rice producers, JA Sado, Sado City government and other actors united to recover Sado rice sales from the slump after Typhoon Megi:

We were united to make every possible effort to recover sales from the devastation. When the production recovered, we were then forced to limit production due to low sales. Diverse actors were exploring ways to reverse the hardship. Inevitably, they were brought together for a common goal.

In a series of efforts to develop a crested ibis brand, the Sado rice producers visited advanced efforts in conservation agriculture in other parts of Japan. These were Nagaoka City of Niigata Prefecture, which was leading in environmental-friendly agriculture; Osaki City of Miyagi Prefecture, which was conserving wetlands and rice paddies for white-fronted geese overwintering in an effort to the Ramsar site registration; and the Institute of Agriculture and Nature, an NPO in Fukuoka Prefecture experimenting in farmers’ biodiversity monitoring in rice paddies. In 2007, a team of members from Niigata Prefectural government, Sado City government, JA Sado and civil society organizations and rice producers in Sado visited Toyooka City in Hyogo Prefecture. Toyooka City was the last habitat of oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana) in Japan until its extinction in wild in 1963, and since the success in captive breeding in 2003, has been restoring stork’s habitats and feed animals in paddy landscapes (Nishimura 2012). The Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme in Sado adopted the core principles of Toyooka’s methods and strategy, particularly in the certification standards that were doable for all farmers on Sado island.

The Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme was formally introduced in 2007. The core certification standards (Table 4) were the habitat creation farming methods being experimented by the group of seven farmers and proven effective through biodiversity monitoring, including winter paddy flooding (Figure 7a) and paddy margin ditches (Figure 7b). A government-funded habitat restoration pilot project provided scientific evidence on a significant increase in amphibian populations, important feed animals for crested ibis, in paddy margin ditches on a demonstration field. Furthermore, some farmers created biotopes on fallow paddies to support the crested ibis rewilding planned to start in 2008. Concurrently, focused scientific research was initiated on crested ibis habitat restoration, particularly on the contribution of each technical requirements of the certification to biodiversity and rice production.

Figure 7. Examples of habitat creation farming methods.

Phase 3 first half: innovation diffusion (2008–2012)

In 2008 when the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme started its operation, 256 farmers (3.6% of all staple rice producers in Sado City) participated and a total of 426 ha rice paddies (7.2% of total staple rice paddy area in the city) was certified (Figure 5). The number of certified rice producers increased continuously, reaching 684 farmers (11.0%) and 1,367 ha (24.5%) in 2012. These figures indicate the diffusion of innovations representing the first half of the third phase.

To promote certified rice production, the city government started direct payments to certified producers, as well as a demonstration farm and technical tutorials for farmers in each of the 10 districts (former municipalities before the merger) on Sado Island in 2008. The direct payment pricing was initially based on the certified paddy area but changed in 2010 to reflect the adoption of each farming method specified by the certification standards (see Table 4 for the unit price of each method). The Crested Ibis Rice Certification Committee was established to raise awareness and technical capacity among farmers, with financial support from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). In the same year, the Committee for Developing the Agriculture and Farmland Strategy for Rewilding Crested Ibis was set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), aiming to enhanced collaboration between relevant entities to restore the feed animal populations on agricultural land.

Table 4. The criteria and unit price of the national and the Sado City’s direct payment schemes.

The national direct payment for conservation agriculture ^a				The Sado City’s direct payment ^b
Standard	Year introduced or revised	Specific criteria	Unit price	Standard	Year introduced or revised	Unit price
Winter paddy flooding	2011		JPY8,000/10a	Winter paddy flooding	2010	JPY1,000/10a
	2016		JPY7,920/10a		2013	JPY2,000/10a
	2017	Causeway reinforcement and organic fertilizer	JPY8,000/10a		2014	JPY500/10a
		Organic fertilizer	JPY7,000/10a
		Causeway reinforcement	JPY5,000/10a
		None	JPY4,000/10a
Paddy margin ditch	2012		JPY4,000/10a	Paddy margin ditch	2010	JPY2,000/10a
	2016		JPY3,960/10a		2013	JPY3,000/10a
	2017	Ditch digging	JPY4,000/10a		2014	JPY3,500/10a
		No ditch digging	JPY3,000/10a
Organic			JPY8,000/10a	Organic	2017	JPY0
	2016		JPY7,920/10a
	2017		JPY8,000/10a
Soil charcoal input	2016		JPY4,950/10a
	2017		JPY5,000/10a
				Paddy fishway	2010	JPY4,000/10a
					2013	JPY4,000/way
				Paddy biotope	2013	JPY7,000/10a
					2014	JPY5,500/10a
				Wildlife monitoring	2010	JPY4,000/hh
					2014	JPY1,000/hh

Note: US$/JP\exchange rate is 115.54 as of 27 February 2022.

Sources: a Documents provided by the Niigata Prefectural government and the Sado City government particularly on the conservation agriculture direct payment scheme (2011 ~ 2013); b documents provided by the Sado city government.

In 2011, the national Direct Payments for Environmental-friendly Agriculture were introduced to Sado, which had similar technical specifications to the Sado’s direct payment but offered higher prices (Table 4). The implementation of these farming methods for national direct payment was, however, different from the habitat creation farming methods for Sado City’s direct payments. For instance, winter paddy flooding under the national scheme required flooding the entire surface of each paddy for no less than two months in winter, while Sado’s standard allowed keeping only shallow and patchy puddles on a paddy (Figure 7a). Sado’s standard had its basis in field observations of crested ibis frequently feeding on shallow narrow waters and considered farmers’ opposition to the full-surface winter paddy flooding which negatively affected rice quality and consumed additional electricity for winter irrigation. The requirements of paddy margin ditches for the national payment, i.e., no less than 10-m length per 0.1 ha of paddy, were stricter than Sado’s scheme. With these differences, the national direct payment was being separately administered from the Sado’s scheme.

In addition, the certified rice producers were receiving a price premium derived from the higher retail price of certified rice. The wholesaler, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (called “Zen-noh” in Japanese) paid a premium of 1,500 JPY per 60 kg of the certified rice purchased from JA Sado. JA Sado then transferred the full amount of the price premium to the certified farmers. Nevertheless, farmers received a net unit price premium of around 500 JPY. This was due to a smaller demand for the crested ibis certified rice on Zen-noh’s wholesale market than the total delivery of the certified rice from JA Sado (Figure 8). Zen-noh purchased the amount equivalent to the market demand as the certified rice with the premium payment, and the rest as non-certified Sado staple rice without premium. The net unit premium prices transferred from JA Sado to farmers were the mean unit price premium for the total volume of the certified rice delivered from rice producers in Sado.

Figure 8. The volume of the crested ibis-certified rice delivered to and shipped from JA Sado, as compared to the total staple rice delivery, and the certification price premium.

A series of efforts in Sado rice branding since the second phase resulted in stronger link with consumers in distant areas, particularly through direct trade with consumer cooperatives and specialist rice retailers. The relationships with consumer cooperatives enabled consumers’ visits to Sado for consumer-producer dialogs and rice-harvesting experiences, as well as continuous donations to the Sado City Fund for Crested Ibis Habitat Restoration (Nagai 2021; Sado 2017).

In this period, the biodiversity-friendly practices had gradually penetrated into non-certified rice production. Since 2012 when the agrochemical reduction target of 50% (equivalent to the MAFF standard for the specially cultivated rice) was met, the entirety of staple rice produced on Sado Island has been shipped as specially cultivated rice (Uenishi 2019). These achievements can be attributed to rice producers’ reflexive learning and changes in awareness. For instance, farmers found that reducing agrochemicals did not significantly decrease rice yield and quality. They also stopped preventive chemical sprays, opting instead for remedial sprays when necessary based on their observations, resulting in the significantly reduced frequency of chemical sprays.

International frameworks helped institutionalize the rice certification scheme. The 10^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10), hosted by the Government of Japan in 2010, created momentum among Japanese local governments to strengthen their biodiversity conservation efforts. Sado City formed the Sado Biodiversity Strategy Expert Committee in 2011 and published the Sado Biodiversity Strategy in 2012, in pursuant to the national Basic Act on Biodiversity. This strategy integrated the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme as one of its priority actions (Sado City Government 2012). Alongside, the Sado biodiversity GIS was developed as a tool for integrated management and visualization of data on each paddy, including on the field observations of crested ibis and its prey animals, the records of farmers’ biodiversity monitoring and certification status. Besides, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) registered the “Sado’s Satoyama in Harmony with the Japanese Crested Ibis” under its Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) program. The primary reason for Sado’s registration was its efforts to collaborate with producers and consumers to promote sustainable agriculture to support crested ibis reintroduction, particularly through the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme.

Phase 3 second half: saturation of innovation diffusion (2013 onwards)

The area of certified paddies ceased increasing in 2013 and started gradually declining after a peak in 2016 at 25.4% of the total staple rice paddy area in Sado City (Figure 5).

During this period, the certification standards were revised upon agreement in the Crested Ibis Rice Certification Committee. These include the addition of the prohibition of herbicide sprays on paddy causeways as a mandatory criterion and organic farming as an optional criterion in 2017. Thereafter, the requirement of Niigata Prefecture Eco-farmer certification was removed in 2020. The prohibition of herbicide sprays on causeways aimed to maintain vegetation that provides habitats for ibis feed insects. The national direct payment scheme introduced group applications in 2015, requiring rice producers to form a group to apply for the payment, and in 2018 started mandating the global standard for good agricultural practices (Global GAP) in 2018.

The local institutional structure supporting the certification scheme also underwent adjustments. In 2014, the Committee for Developing the Agriculture and Farmland Strategy for Rewilding Crested Ibis was dissolved and its function was integrated into the Sado Biodiversity Strategy Promotion Committee. With this, the Biodiversity Strategy and the certification scheme, which had previously been operating separately, gained an institutional link. The Sado Biodiversity Strategy Promotion Committee was meeting regularly to provide a forum for information sharing among various actors including national and local governments, JA Sado, farmers, research institutions and civil society organizations.

As the wild crested ibis population increased in Sado, scientific evidence accumulated on the biodiversity outcomes of the habitat creation farming methods. These include increased amphibian populations by winter paddy flooding and paddy margin ditches, a richer benthos fauna in biotopes and by halving of agrochemical use, and increased observation of crested ibis feeding on paddy margin ditches (Komachi 2017; Nishikawa 2015).

In spite of these efforts, the certified paddy area started gradually declining since 2016. The number of commercial farm households in Sado City fell by 38% from 5,332 in 2010 to 4,131 in 2020, at an average annual reduction of 200 households (Niigata Prefectural Government 2020). The decline in certified paddy area had been slower than the decrease of certified rice producers (Figure 9a), indicating paddy aggregation under remaining individual farmers. Method-wise trends show continued implementation of paddy margin ditches and decreasing winter paddy flooding. The stated reason for the continuation of paddy margin ditches was farmers’ awareness of their positive biodiversity outcomes gained through biodiversity monitoring. In contrast, negative consequences of winter paddy flooding when continued were reported, e.g., lower rice quality and deeper paddy bottoms which hinder rice cultivation work. The paddy area under the national direct payment scheme had been about one-third of the crested ibis certified paddy area until 2016, but declined sharply from 2017 (Figure 9b) when the Global GAP and the group application requirements for the national direct payment were introduced in 2018.

Figure 9. Chronological change in the adoption of different conservation farming methods, paddy area and in farmers under the crested ibis rice certification scheme (a) and the national direct payment scheme (b).

Discussion

Based on the above narratives of the events and factors constituting the levers and leverage points that drove the TC process, this section discusses the effects of and the interactions among levers, leverage points and exogenous drivers throughout the TC process as illustrated in Figure 10. It also examines barriers and the efforts to overcome the barriers.

Figure 10. Interactions between exogenous factors, levers and leverage points that pushed forward or hampered the TC in paddy rice system in Sado.

Exogenous factors, levers, and leverage points are listed in a chronological order.

Lever B. coordination across sectors and jurisdictions

Coordination across sectors and jurisdictions was observed throughout the entire TC process. In the first phase, the Environment Rehabilitation Vision Development Committee, attended by multiple actors across sectors and levels, clarified a shared vision, i.e., living in harmony with crested ibis (falling under leverage point (a) “visions of a good life”). This vision was upheld throughout and served as a foundation for the subsequent phases. The Committee also clarified the roles that each actor could play in crested ibis habitat rehabilitation (leverage point (c) “unleash latent values of responsibility to enable widespread action”), as well as an inclusive participation mechanism (leverage point e. “practice justice and inclusion in conservation”). Seven farmers, motivated by this development and inspired by a Committee member from outside Sado Island, formed a group to pilot-test the habitat creation farming methods and biodiversity monitoring (leverage point (g) “ensure responsible technology, innovation and investment”), which characterizes the first phase. The innovation was stabilized in the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme (lever E. “environmental law and implementation”) in the second phase, driven by multi-stakeholder collaboration through the Sado Rice Marketing Strategy Development Committee. Collective efforts for Sado rice branding and certification attracted the attention of rice retailers and consumers, as seen in their regular farm visits and donations (leverage point (f) “elucidate and internalize externalities and telecouplings”).

These developments highlight the importance of co-creation of a long-term vision by the government and farmers, as AIS depicts (Elzen et al. 2012) and MLP considers important in the second phase (Geels 2019). Furthermore, as AIS postulates, intermediaries played an important role. Intermediaries in the current case were various forms of committees that institutionalized collaboration among multiple actors (Table 2). The Sado City government played a central role among other entities, serving as the secretariat for three of the seven committees.

Lever E. environmental law and implementation

Focused policies and plans for crested ibis rehabilitation took shape from the end of the first and toward the second phase building on strengthened collaboration across sectors and jurisdictions. The development of the Sado Environment Rehabilitation Vision in 2003, an outcome of Environment Rehabilitation Vision Development Committee meetings, was the first of this sort. The vision prescribed not only quantitative targets for crested ibis rewilding, but also the “ten principles for an inclusive process” (leverage point (e) “Practice justice and inclusion in conservation”). On this basis, Sado City promulgated the Eco-island Development Plan, and thereafter the Sado City Basic Environmental Ordinance when established in 2004 which specified the responsibility of the city government to thoroughly support crested ibis rehabilitation. These supported expanding the efforts for crested ibis rehabilitation throughout the island.

The Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme, administered by the Sado City government, is rooted in these local policies and subsequently the Sado Biodiversity Strategy under the provisions of the national Basic Act on Biodiversity. The certification scheme was designed to ensure equity by adopting doable standards for all staple rice producers in Sado (leverage point (d) “reduce inequalities”). The success of the scheme relied on consumers’ sense of responsibility for their remote impacts through food consumption (leverage points (c) “unleash latent values of responsibility” and (f) “elucidate and internalize externalities and telecouplings”).

Lever A. incentives and capacity building

The provision of an incentive was first attempted during the first phase by Niibo Village as an income compensation to assist farmers in implementing habitat creation farming methods (Figure 6). This is what MLP depicts as public support for social experiments to generate radical innovations (Geels 2019) (leverage point (g) “ensure responsible technology, innovation and investment”). Subsequently in the third phase when the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme was introduced, the Sado City government started its own direct payment scheme as well as technical demonstration and training, to promote the diffusion of the certified rice production. The certification scheme also provided price premiums to rice producers which derived from additional consumer payments (leverage point (f) “elucidate and internalize externalities and telecouplings”). Uenishi (2019) showed the contribution of these efforts by Sado City to the increased certification uptake at the initial stage. Besides, the contribution of the national direct payment scheme to promoting the certification was unclear due to the difference in the standards for the national payment and for the certification, as well as to their separate administration processes.

Leverage point h. promote education and knowledge generation and sharing

Initial efforts in knowledge generation were made in the first phase when the farmers’ group started experimenting with habitat creation farming methods and paddy biodiversity monitoring. Subsequently, focused academic research projects, on-site technical experiments and data infrastructure development progressed. These included a habitat restoration pilot project by MAFF and the Sado biodiversity GIS (Figure 6). Such knowledge was occasionally used, e.g., the MAFF’s pilot project results for technical adjustments in the certification standards (lever E “environmental law and implementation”), and academic research results shared with stakeholders through the Biodiversity Strategy Promotion Committee (lever B. “coordination across sectors and jurisdictions”). Yet, a mechanism to use acquired knowledge for adaptive decision-making (lever D), which Chan et al. (2020) reckon is important for TC, was not firmly institutionalized.

Exogenous factors

We identified six major exogenous factors that substantially affected the TC process. The first factor was progress in the captive breeding and rewilding of the crested ibis. Particularly, the gift of a mating pair from China and their successful breeding in 1999, the first release of captive-bred ibis into the wild in 2008, and the subsequent establishment of wild ibis populations on Sado provided important milestones in the development and deployment of the certification scheme (Figures 5, 10, far left).

Second, the nationwide municipality merger policy resulted in the founding of Sado City in March 2004 from the former 10 municipalities on Sado Island.

Third, typhoon Megi in August 2004 caused devastating loss in rice yield on Sado Island that year and market loss for the subsequent few years. This event brought together Sado rice producers and other value chain stakeholders to make a collective effort for Sado rice branding.

Fourth, behind the national direct payment scheme, which was introduced to Sado in 2011, were tightened international trade liberalization regulations in the 1990s under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). To protect domestic agriculture against this, MAFF promulgated the Future Direction of Food, Agriculture and Rural Development Policies in 1992 (Hara 2007) which stressed the need for nature conservation efforts in agricultural lands. Under the stricter regulations on production-stimulating agricultural subsidies by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor of GATT, MAFF reformed subsidies to focus more on compensating farmers’ income loss, initially by the Basic Act on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas and the Act on Promotion of Introduction of Sustainable Agricultural Production Practices in 1999. This was followed by their revisions and relevant provisions including the Measures to Conserve and Improve Land, Water and the Environment in 2007 (Akiyama 2007). Currently, the national direct payment schemes are implemented under the provision of the 2015 Act on the Promotion of the Multifunctionality of Agricultural Lands. Among these, the Direct Payments for Environment-friendly Agriculture support the farming methods that contribute to greenhouse gas emission reduction and/or biodiversity conservation and that halve the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

In parallel, some local governments have developed their own agri-environmental policies for endogenous reasons. For example, Shiga Prefecture, facing serious water pollution by agriculture runoff, started certification of and payments for agricultural products produced with reduced pesticides and chemical fertilizers (Kishioka et al. 2017). Fukuoka Prefecture implemented a model project from 2005, which experimented with direct payments for rice paddy biodiversity monitoring by farmers (Kishi 2008). These endogenous efforts enabled smooth adoption of the national direct payment scheme when the Measures to Conserve and Improve Land, Water and the Environment was promulgated in 2007.

Fifth, regarding environmental multilateral agreements, Japan hosted CBD-COP10 in 2010 which created a momentum among local government to accelerate their biodiversity efforts. In this context, Sado City developed the Sado Biodiversity Strategy in 2012 which incorporated the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme as one of its priority measures. FAO registered Sado, the “Satoyama in Harmony with Crested Ibis,” as one of its GIAHS sites in 2011, recognizing the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme as an iconic effort (Watanabe 2012).

Sixth, a rapid decline in rice producers could be related to the peak out and the subsequent decrease of certified rice paddy area in the second half of the third phase.

Ways to overcome barriers to TC

The certified paddy area peaked out in the second half of the third phase. Uenishi (2019) identified the reasons that farmers withdrew from or do not adopt the certification, which were limited economic benefits and increased labor for paddy management, biodiversity monitoring and paperwork, particularly for aged farmers. Below, we discuss the actions to overcome the barriers from a TC lens.

An option could be expanding the demand for the certified rice to increase price premium, as pointed out by Uenishi (2019). Challenges remain after a series of efforts by JA Sado to promote certified rice sales, particularly mixed and unstable rice quality. Addressing these challenges requires continuous engagement of experts. A wider reach out to consumers would also be necessary to enhance their awareness of the value of environment-friendly food in a broad sense, which is to further “elucidate and internalize externalities and telecouplings” (leverage point (f)).

An effective link between the national direct payment scheme and the certification scheme could also help improve financial incentives for farmers. The development of the certification system, including Sado City’s direct payment scheme, followed an endogenous renewal process (Geels 2019; Smith, Stirling, and Berkhout 2005) led by Sado City government. The certification schme, however, was not effectively linked to the national direct payment scheme as in the successes in Shiga (Kishioka et al. 2017) and Fukuoka (Kishi 2008) prefectures. This represents “mis-matches with the broader regime” that Geels (2019) pointed out as a typical barrier faced during the third phase. Better coordination between Sado City and the national government to address the mis-match could increase financial incentives for certified rice production, implying that lever B “coordination across sectors and jurisdictions” can potentially reinforce lever E. “environmental law and implementation,” and thereby lever A “incentives and capacity building.”

Science-based and continued adjustments of the certification standards could ease the additional burden on farmers to maintain the certification. Focused academic research since 2007 (leverage point (h) “promote education and knowledge generation and sharing”) has accumulated knowledge on the contribution of different agronomy practices to crested ibis feeding behaviors (Komachi 2017). This knowledge can potentially help improve the certification criteria that are more focused on high-priority measures to maintain ibis habitats and thus reduce the burden on farmers. Chan et al. (2020) point out the importance of lever D “adaptive decision-making,” that is informed by a robust knowledge foundation (leverage point (h)), to TC. In Sado, a stronger institutional arrangement for adaptive decision-making that is effectively informed by accumulated scientific knowledge can potentially reduce the barriers to the wider propagation of the certification.

Prioritization of paddies for certified rice production might also be helpful. Even if incentives are increased and the burden on farmers is eased, the background decline and aging of rice producers and the consequent increase in paddy abandonment may persist. Reports have shown that, in most cases, prey animals and foraging environments for crested ibis disappear from abandoned paddies (Komachi 2017; Otake 2010). In these circumstances, it may be effective to prioritize paddy fields where certified rice production should be continued or newly introduced according to their importance for feeding crested ibis and to the profitability of rice production. This corresponds to lever C “preemptive action.” In addition to the knowledge on paddy locations and farming methods that contribute to crested ibis feeding behaviors in Sado (Komachi 2017), the topographical conditions of paddies and the farming methods that benefit high-quality and thus high-value-added rice production have been identified in other parts of Niigata Prefecture (Yagi 2018). Similar studies in Sado are awaited. Advancing studies such as these and the Sado Biodiversity GIS, an integrated data platform on paddy management and crested ibis observation records, could enable science-based paddy prioritization.

Overcoming barriers for the wider propagation of certification, and thereby further advancing TC, requires adaptive management of the certification system informed by scientific and technical knowledge across disciplines, including ecology, rice quality and marketing and future projection of paddy abandonment. Among the stakeholder coordination bodies that continue to exist, the Sado Biodiversity Strategy Promotion Committee has been serving as a forum for knowledge exchange between various actors. The strategy stipulates an adaptive decision-making mechanism (lever D) including the development and use of Sado biodiversity GIS, while the mechanism is yet to be fully operational. Therefore, strengthening adaptive decision-making and preemptive action mechanisms for certification operation under the Sado Biodiversity Strategy is a readily available option to push TC forward.

Conclusions

Interpreting the paddy rice system change along with the recovery of wild crested ibis population on Sado Island as a transformative change (TC) process, this paper analyzed the factors that drove or hampered the TC process and thereby discussed the levers and leverage points to further advance TC in the future. Overall, the TC process progressed from 1999 to the present driven by consecutive actions on multi-stakeholder collaboration (lever B), local policy integration (E) and incentives and capacity building (A), which interacted one another and with seven leverage points under six major exogenous factors. Further advancing the TC process requires operationalizing levers D (adaptive decision-making) and C (preemptive action). The empirical knowledge of the contribution of levers, leverage points and their interactions with the TC process presented in this paper would help design a mix of levers and leverage points to deliver TC in other areas on the Japanese mainland where future reintroduction of crested ibis is planned under the Crested Ibis Reintroduction Roadmap 2025 (MOE 2021). More broadly designing a mix of levers and leverage points can facilitate food system transformation toward societies in harmony with nature as envisioned in the draft Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD 2021). The results also suggest adding an important question to the nine guiding questions on leverage points for sustainability transformation proposed by Leventon, Abson, and Lang (2021): “How leverage points interact one another and with levers in system transformation processes?”

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund [JPMEERF16S11504; 1FS-2201], the e-AISA Joint Research Program of Japan Science and Technology Agency [JPMJSC20E6]; JSPS [20H00438]; and the Ministry of the Environment of Japan Research Fund for the Development of Local Sustainability Future Scenarios with Multiple Value Indicators.

Appendix 1.

Interview questions

Table

Background and purpose of the development of the Crested Ibis Rice Certification scheme Science and technologies relating to the rice certification system The outcomes of the rice certification system Key events relating to the development, amendments and implementation of the rice certification system Key stakeholder and associations that played an important role in the development, amendments and implementation of the rice certification system