Daisekirinzan at Yanbaru National Park Okinawa 2008

is the Okinawan and

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, 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 Municipalities ...

name given to the forested northern part of

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of

Higashi Higashi (Japanese 東 ''east'') may refer to: Places in Japan *Higashi, Shibuya *Higashi, Fukushima *Higashi, Okinawa *Higashi-ku, Fukuoka *Higashi-ku, Hiroshima *Higashi-ku, Nagoya *Higashi-ku, Sapporo People *Keigo Higashi, Japanese footballer ...

, 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 established ...

, 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 immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

in Asia, with many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

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 Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

. 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 Yambaru at the northern end of Okinawa Island. The park comprises a land area of in the villages of Kunigami, Ōgimi, and ...

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

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

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

Camp Gonsalves Camp Gonsalves is a U.S. Marine Corps jungle warfare training area located in northern Okinawa, Japan, across the villages of Kunigami and Higashi. Established in 1958, it is the largest U.S. training facility in Okinawa. The camp is located i ...

. As of 2010 there were twenty-two

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

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 designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

. 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 cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...

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

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

crisis. The

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

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 bizarre to the area. Many of these are

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

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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

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 al ...

(''Yambaru kuina'' in Japanese),

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

( 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 the Eurasian woodcock, and may be conspecific. This species is a restricted-range endemic found only in forests on Amami Ōshima, Okinaw ...

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 temper ...

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 eve ...

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''), also known as the rodent in the family Muridae. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Diplothrix'' and is endemic to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Its natural habitat ...

, 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 se ...

. 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, inv ...

; the Muennink's spiny rat, the Okinawa woodpecker, and Yambaru whiskered bat being

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

. The

in particular is threatened both by the presence of American

Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as 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 a wingspan of . It is ...

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 the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

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