Southern Japan Islands to Get UNESCO World Heritage Status

Tokyo, May 10 (Jiji Press)--A UNESCO advisory panel has recommended the registration of Amami Oshima and other southwestern islands in Japan as natural assets on the UNESCO World Heritage list, Japan's Environment Ministry said Monday. The recommendation was made by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the ministry said. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is expected to formalize the registration at its online meeting on July 16-31. The areas seen for the World Heritage designation--Amami Oshima and the island of Tokunoshima in Kagoshima Prefecture, northern parts of the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, an island prefecture, and Iriomote Island in Okinawa--are as large as 42,698 hectares. About 100 animal species on the IUCN's Red List, including the Amami rabbit and the Okinawa rail, inhabit the southwestern Japan islands. In February 2017, the Japanese government recommended the islands to UNESCO, aiming for their World Heritage listing in summer 2018. But the IUCN proposed in May 2018 the deferral of the registration, noting that the country had failed to comprehensively designate areas in order to protect rare species of wild fauna and flora. The government reviewed the areas and resubmitted its proposal in February 2019, seeking the registration of the islands in summer 2020. But the IUCN put off its recommendation on the resubmitted proposal as the World Heritage Committee postponed its meeting scheduled for summer 2020 in China due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The southwestern Japan islands are important areas in light of the conservation of biodiversity featuring internationally rare indigenous species, the IUCN said, praising Japan for making efforts to overhaul its initial proposal. Meanwhile, the IUCN called on Japan to curb the number of tourists to the areas, and examine its current measures to reduce traffic deaths of rare wild animals on the islands and introduce stronger measures as needed. The southwestern islands would be the fifth set of natural assets in Japan on the UNESCO World Heritage list and the first since Tokyo's Ogasawara Islands were given the status in 2011. The other three natural sites in Japan on the UNESCO list are the Shirakami Mountains, which straddle the northeastern prefectures of Aomori and Akita, Yakushima, an island in Kagoshima, and the Shiretoko region in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido. Japan currently has a total of 23 natural and cultural World Heritage sites. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS, is expected to issue a recommendation during the week from May 24 on whether to register a set of ruins from the ancient Jomon period in northern Japan. The ruins in Hokkaido, Aomori and the prefectures of Iwate and Akita include the Sannai-Maruyama site in the city of Aomori. "We have received a good, dream-inspiring news" while the country continues to struggle amid the novel coronavirus epidemic, Tsuyoshi Asayama, mayor of the city of Amami, which occupies part of the Amami Oshima island, said upon learning about the latest recommendation by the IUCN. "I was relieved" to hear the news, said photographer Mamoru Tsuneda, who has been engaged in nature conservation activities on the island for more than 40 years. At the same time, he said: "People can protect nature, but also could be responsible for the destruction of nature. I hope that the expected World Heritage listing of the islands will help people become aware of that." "Passing down rare animals and plants to future generations and considering how to utilize them is a crucial task for the tourism sector," said Kosuke Kijima, head of the association of eco-tour guides on Amami Oshima. Since the IUCN recommended the deferral of World Heritage registration in May 2018, the town of Taketomi, where Iriomote Island is located, has implemented measures such as enacting an ordinance authorizing only licensed tour guides to do the job and considering limiting the number of tourists to the island. "Measures we have put into place (since the 2018 recommendation) were highly rated. The direction we have taken was not wrong," Taichiro Toji, head of the Taketomi town government's World Heritage department, said. Meanwhile, Harumi Tokuoka, a senior official of the Iriomote Island Eco-Tourism Association, said: "I'm proud (of the upcoming World Heritage registration). Still, I have mixed feelings. We have to start work soon on making rules on accepting visitors to the island in order to ensure that an increase in the number of tourists will not cause any problems." END