Subtropical Forest of Yanbaru National Park Okinawa 2018

is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

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 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Established in 2016, it is located in and around the forested region of

Yanbaru is the Okinawan and Kunigami name given to the forested northern part of Okinawa Island in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of Higashi, Kunigami, and Ōgimi, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of subtropical rain ...

at the northern end 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 ...

. The park comprises a land area of in the

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred t ...

of Kunigami,

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 established ...

, and Higashi together with of the surrounding waters. The day of establishment, 15 September, coincides with the anniversary of the 1983 discovery of the

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 inv ...

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 else ...

Future plans

Future extension of the Park is contingent upon the reversion of land currently occupied by the US military as the Northern Training Area. The northern part of Okinawa Island that corresponds with Yanbaru was in 2016 submitted 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 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

as part of the serial nomination Amami-Ōshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island. In 2021 was inscribed to World Heritage List.

References

External links

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Map of Yanbaru National Park
{{authority control National parks of Japan Parks and gardens in Okinawa Prefecture Protected areas established in 2016 2016 establishments in Japan

Future plans

See also

References

External links