Scott Musgrave-Takeda, PhD Candidate

On Thursday the 19th of October, I delivered my presentation of the issues surrounding the World Heritage listing of the Yanbaru forest and the actions of environmental activist, Akino Miyagi. I was joined by a modest audience of about 20 people with two scholars I had invited specifically for feedback, that of Dr Keisuke Mori, a sociologist from Senshu University and Dr Shinnosuke Takahashi, a historian from University of Victoria, Wellington. Both area experts in Okinawa, I was somewhat nervous before my presentation, something that rarely happens to me.

Throughout my talk I went on to discuss the significance of Akino tai’in‘s actions, my interview with her, and a general overview of the controversies surrounding the registration of the Yanbaru forest as a world natural heritage site by UNESCO, despite having the US Jungle Warfare Training Facility running straight through the centre of it.

The image above is care of Asahi Shimbun, but I think you get the idea. The finished zone is below here sourced from the UN report.

There has been a lot of good work done my civil society actors in Okinawa to bring this to light, and I hope I’m doing my bit by getting the word out there a bit more.

The presentation was a snapshot of a chapter of my PhD thesis and the basis of an article I am currently writing. My key three points were:

• Environmental activist, Akino Miyagi’s activity in the Yanbaru forest in not only very different among contemporary actors in this region, but also in Okinawa as a whole – going against established norms of protest.
• The UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the Yanbaru forest has been contested from the beginning due to the proximity of the US Marine Jungle Warfare Training Centre.
• Government oversight needs to be improved to ensure the ecology of the forest is maintained in an even manner.

Overall it appeared the seminar was well received with Dr Takahashi and Dr Mori providing feedback while comments from Dr David Palmer and Professor Kunihiko Yoshida, also provided insightful commentary.

It was a very positive experience – one which I hope to connect to my future research working toward completion.