Valuations of nature are vital for effective conservation planning, and discussions are underway globally on improving the valuation process. Plural valuations of human–nature relationships are the key for better, more inclusive decision-making, which is demonstrated in this research using a case study on human–ocean relationships on Ishigaki Island, a part of the Yaeyama archipelago, Japan. We applied a network analysis to text data obtained from answers on questionnaires with open-ended questions to quantify the importance of values with respect to the pluralities among local people. Therefore, five core elements encompassing the values of the human–ocean relationships on Ishigaki Island were proposed as follows: “Livelihood,” “Attachment and inspiration,” “Local marine culture,” “Respect and fear for nature,” and “Anthropocene environmental problems.” The “Anthropocene environmental problems” element included social and environmental problems caused by various human activities including excessive tourism development, and the data collected through tourism market value analysis implied that past ecosystem service assessments may have over-valued or even triggered this issue. The “Respect and fear for nature” element was found to be important as a potentially unique value in these regions, but this is currently understudied within the literature related to ecosystem services and nature’s contributions to people. This study is among the first works to extract and visualize place-based human–ocean relations in an Asian country. We hope that our methods and findings will be applied to other areas, especially to the local communities of understudied countries and regions, to drive the transformative change of coral reef governance in the Anthropocene.

自然评估对于有效的保护规划至关重要，全球正在讨论改进评估过程。对人与自然关系的多重评估是做出更好、更具包容性的决策的关键，本研究使用日本八重山群岛一部分石垣岛人与海洋关系的案例研究证明了这一点。我们对从带有开放式问题的问卷的答案中获得的文本数据进行了网络分析，以量化价值观对于当地人多元化的重要性。因此，提出石垣岛人海关系价值观的五个核心要素：“生计”、“依恋与灵感”、“当地海洋文化”、“敬畏自然、敬畏自然、”和“人类世环境问题”。“人类世环境问题”要素包括旅游过度开发等各种人类活动造成的社会和环境问题，通过旅游市场价值分析收集的数据暗示，过去的生态系统服务评估可能高估甚至引发了这一问题。“对自然的尊重和恐惧”元素被认为在这些地区具有重要的潜在独特价值，但目前在与生态系统服务和自然对人类的贡献相关的文献中对此进行了研究。这项研究是提取和可视化亚洲国家基于地点的人海关系的首批工作之一。我们希望我们的方法和发现将应用于其他领域，