Daisekirinzan at Yanbaru National Park Okinawa 2008

is the Okinawan and

Kunigami is a village in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and villages of Higashi and Ōgimi to the south. As of 2015, the village ...

name given to the forested northern part of

Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five main islands of Japan. The island is approximately long, an average wide, and has an ...

in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of

Higashi Higashi is the Japanese word for ''east''. In kanji it is represented as 東. Higashi may also refer to: Places *Higashi, Shibuya, a district of Shibuya, Tokyo *Higashi, Fukushima, a village in Fukushima Prefecture * Higashi, Okinawa, a village i ...

, and

Ōgimi is a village located in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of October 2016, the village has an estimated population of 3,024 and a population density of 51 persons per km². The total area is . Several censuses have establishe ...

, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

in Asia, with many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species of flora and fauna. Many southerners fled to the area for refuge during the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

. In 2016,

Yambaru National Park is a national park in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Established in 2016, it is located in and around the forested region of Yanbaru at the northern end of Okinawa Island. The park comprises a land area of in the villages of Kunigami, Ōgimi, a ...

was established and the area was included in a submission for inscription on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

. Yambaru currently contains the 7,500 ha US Jungle Warfare Training Centre at

Camp Gonsalves Camp Gonsalves is a United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps jungle warfare training area located in northern Okinawa, Japan, across the villages of Kunigami, Okinawa, Kunigami and Higashi, Okinawa, Higashi. Established in 1958, it is the l ...

. As of 2010 there were twenty-two

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

s in the training area with a further seven planned within two of the best preserved areas. Issues relating to the location of helipads delayed the designation as a

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

. Threatened by

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/ logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fore ...

and the removal of undergrowth, various endemic species are facing an imminent

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

crisis. The

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

has noted that 'to continue to perform realistic military training activities, these habitats must be maintained.'

Biodiversity

According to the WWF, Yambaru is the habitat of over four thousand species, with eleven animals and twelve plants peculiar to the area. Many of these are

threatened species Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

and 177 feature on the Red List of the Ministry of the Environment. Rare species include the flightless

Okinawa rail The Okinawa rail (''Hypotaenidia okinawae'') is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island in Japan where it is known as the . Its existence was only confirmed in 1978 and it was formally described in 1981 a ...

(''Yambaru kuina'' in Japanese),

Okinawa woodpecker The is a woodpecker endemic to the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. It was previously placed in the monotypic genus ''Sapheopipo''. Other common names for this species are Noguchi's woodpecker, Okinawan woodpecker, Pryer's woodpecker and Ryukyu woo ...

( Special Natural Monument),

Ryukyu robin The Ryukyu robin (''Larvivora komadori'') is a bird endemic to the Ryūkyū Islands, of Japan. The Okinawa robin (''Larvivora namiyei'') previously was considered a subspecies. The specific name ''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the comm ...

Amami woodcock The Amami woodcock (''Scolopax mira'') is a medium-sized wader. It is slightly larger and longer-legged than Eurasian woodcock, and may be conspecific. This species is a restricted-range endemic found only in forests on two small islands of the ...

Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle The Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle or Ryukyu leaf turtle (''Geoemyda japonica'') is a species of turtles in the family Geoemydidae (formerly Bataguridae) endemic to the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. In 1975, the species was designated a National ...

Anderson's crocodile newt Anderson's crocodile newt, Anderson's newt, Ryukyu spiny newt, or Japanese warty newt (''Echinotriton andersoni'') is a species of salamander in the family Salamandridae found in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and, at least formerly, Mount Guanyin ( ...

Ishikawa's frog Ishikawa's frog (''Odorrana ishikawae'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island, one of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. It has been described as the most beautiful frog in Japan. Its natural habitats are tempera ...

Holst's frog Holst's frog (''Babina holsti'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. It occurs on mountains of the Okinawa and Tokashiki islands. It lives in primary or recovered secondary broad-leaved ev ...

Namiye's frog ''Limnonectes namiyei'' is a species of frog in the family Dicroglossidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island, Japan. It is named after Motoyoshi Namiye, a Japanese naturalist and herpetologist. Its common name is Okinawa wart frog or Namiye's frog ...

Ryukyu long-tailed giant rat The Ryukyu long-tailed giant rat or Ryukyu rat (''Diplothrix legata'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Diplothrix''. It is found only in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Its natural habit ...

, and

Muennink's spiny rat Muennink's spiny rat or Okinawa spiny rat (''Tokudaia muenninki'', or ) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Endemic to Okinawa Island, Japan, its natural habitat is subtropical moist broadleaf forest. The karyotype has 2n = 44. Its sex ...

. All these species, with the exception of the Ryukyu robin, are classified as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

; the Muennink's spiny rat, the Okinawa woodpecker, and Yambaru whiskered bat being critically endangered. The

in particular is threatened both by the presence of American

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

from the US Marine bases on the island and by the construction of six new

s in the forest.

Conservation and tourism

The opened in 1999 to increase understanding of the area; in 2010 it reopened after renovation. The area is being promoted by

Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city o ...

for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

References

External links

Map of Yambaru
(area marked in green on smaller map)

{{coord missing, Okinawa Prefecture Geography of Okinawa Prefecture

Biodiversity

Conservation and tourism

See also

References

External links