This research aims at examining ethical issues concerning environmental restoration and resource management, and clarifying the ideas that support bottom-up conservation activities. The following topics were examined in this study: the gap of values that people identify in the environment, the right and obligation that arise from landownership, rules and regulations for resource management, the social capital of a community, individualistic and communal value decisions, etc. On the basis of the study of dialogical and collaborative processes in community-oriented environmental conservation projects conducted in Sado, Niigata, this study showed the importance of the comprehensive recognition of multi-layered commons and the growth of the sense of ownership of both the process and outcomes of their activities.