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(Satellite Room 6) TO: ALL 10th International Coral Reef Symposium Participants FROM: Environmental Assessment Watch Group for Dugongs in Okinawa RE: LET’S PROTECT OUR DUGONGS IN OKINAWA ! During the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium being held here in Okinawa, we are hosting a meeting to discuss how to help save our threatened dugongs. You are all very welcome to join us! At the meeting we expect to discuss protection of the dugongs which live in the seas just off-shore Henoko, and which are now being threatened by a plan to build a new US military airbase on top of their habitat. On 25th September 2003, Peter Galvin and the Center for Biological Diversity (USA), together with members of our local Environmental Assessment Watch Group for Dugongs in Okinawa, filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in order to help protect dugongs in Okinawa. Mr. Galvin and three other staff-members also attending the ICRS Symposium will be present at our meeting to discuss this critical situation and to share various other environmental concerns with us. Dugongs have been designated as one of Japan’s Natural Monuments, and the seas off Henoko, known as the northern-most range for dugongs in the Indo-Pacific region, are an extremely important habitat. Henoko is located on the northeast coast of Okinawa Island, an area that has been given the status of RANK 1, (strict nature conservation needed) by the Okinawa Prefectural Government. The area has also been evaluated as one of 500 ecologically-important wetlands in Japan by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. ReefCheck surveys conducted during the last 6 years demonstrate that Henoko coral reefs are already stressed by bleaching events, having declined to "damaged¨ levels and recovered to ¨good¨, and back to "damaged", from an initial "excellent" rating in 1998. Any added stresses (such as military airbase construction, contamination from heliport run-off, noise and light pollution, etc.) will surely cause collapse of this already fragile ecosystem. Although Okinawa is only a mere 0.6% of the total Japanese land area, 75% of U.S. bases in Japan are located in Okinawa! This U.S. military presence is a result of cooperation between the U.S. and Japanese governments. Now, the U.S. and Japanese governments have a new plan: to build a new American military base right on top of a coral reef and the sea grass beds where dugongs feed! The plan includes moving the present Futenma U.S. Marine base at Ginowan City to a new airbase just offshore Henoko. Local residents want heliport-related drilling surveys and military diving activities on Henoko Reef to stop. A sit-in was organized by residents to protest the proposed facility on April 19, 2004, when Naha Defense Facility Administration Bureau tried to start feasibility studies for the proposed new airbase without any announcement to local residents. Dr Kiyoshi Yamazato, Professor Emeritus, University of the Ryukyus, had already warned in a report made by the Department of Nature Conservation of Okinawa Prefecture (Jan 10, 2004), “Conducting this plan is equivalent to stabbing the heart of a coral reef. These coral reefs will surely perish. Thus I insist this plan be stopped.” We invite you to help us discuss this crisis, as well as other important and critical environmental problems we face in Okinawa. Please come brainstorm for solutions with us! Beside the immediate Henoko dugong environmental problem, we hope to extend the discussion to more general topics, such as the meaning and limits of Japanese Environmental Assessment Laws. We very much need your opinions and your advice. Also, if you wish to participate in our post-symposium field-trip to Henoko to see where the construction of the new U.S. military airbase is being planned, please visit our ICRS exhibition booth (No.19) to sign up. SCHEDULE for “Let’s Protect Our Dugongs !” MEETING 1. Time: 19:00-21:00, June 29 (Tuesday, after dinner) |
