Okinawa Environmental Justice Project

Being true to the maxim "make the Yambaru Forest a genuine World Heritage site," civil society members have taken a new step.  (日本語は下のプレスリリースをご覧下さい） First, on February 17, 2022, thirty civil society groups in Japan sent a letter of concern to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the IUCN World Heritage Programme. See the letter below. RBC News covers our press conference on sending of the letter                     The letter explains that, despite the inscription of the "Northern Part of Okinawa Island" (part of the Yambaru forest) as a World Natural Heritage in July 2021, the Japanese government is still reluctant to address critical issues the Yambaru forest faces. The U.S. military's Northern Training Area sitting next to the World Heritage site threatens the World Heritage sites and the forest as a whole. Numerous discarded U.S. military materials such as bullets and chemicals are still scattered in the "returned area" (formerl...