Civic groups send a letter to UNESCO World Heritage Centre and IUCN. OEJP reaches out to World Heritage Watch「やんばるの森を真の世界遺産へ」新たな一歩始まる
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" (formerly parts of the North