Okinawa Environmental Justice Project

日本語は下にあります。 On June 18, the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project sent a letter to Mr. Tim Badman, the Director of the IUCN World Heritage Programme. The letter is posted below.  The letter asks for clarification on the Programme's stance on four critical issues regarding the U.S. military's Northern Training Area (NTA) in relation to its recommendation of the Northern Part of Okinawa Island (or the Yambaru forest) for World Heritage status. Our evaluation of IUCN World Heritage Evaluations 2020-2021 and our concerns over the Okinawa Police's house raid of entomologist Miyagi Akino prompted OEJP to send the letter to the Programme. We hope that the Programme will respond to our request as the Programme has always done. After reviewing the Programme's response, OEJP plans to take further action with a view to the upcoming UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting next month.  The IUCN World Heritage Programme has been instrumental in bringing local residents’ and NGOs'...

Police House Raid: Intimidation and Human Rights Violation  (日本語文は下にあります） On June 4, 2021,  the Okinawa Prefectural Police raided the house of Akino Miyagi , an entomologist with deep knowledge of the Yambaru forest. The raid was appalling and inexcusable. It is a form of intimidation and human rights violation by the Police. However, we are glad that  Akino-san is safe and remains defiant  and that  the Okinawa civil society quickly delivered a statement condemning the police action .  "SOS" written with discarded military materials in the Yambaru Forest Image Source: Akino Miyagi's Facebook We hope that the media take every step to find out who was behind the police action and reveal and tell the whole story.  Sadly though, the Okinawa Prefectural Government and the Environment Ministry have remained silent so far for whatever reasons.  This incident is a reminder of the complex relationship in motion between the militarized reality of Okinawa, ...

Suspicious Article?   On May 4, one of my NGO colleagues in the U.S send me a short email, alerting to an article titled "Local extinction of an isolated dugong population near Okinawa Island."  Submitted to Scientific Reports , a well-known scientific journal, the article had been uploaded on the Research Square portal site for public comments for a few days.  I had just written blog articles on the Okinawa Prefectural Government's report and the Ministry of the Environment's reports that dugong feeding trails were found in several parts of the waters of Okinawa, including the waters of northern Okinawa Island, during their 2020 fiscal surveys. So, I was confused and could not understand what was happening while reading the abstract.  Image Source: Research Square Then, I looked at the names of the authors and realized that four of them were very familiar. Three of them are current members, and the other is a former member of the Environment Monitoring Committee ...