Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island,
Northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island

The nomination dossier was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in 2019.

The Natural World Heritage Nominated Property Comprehensive Management Plan (hereinafter referred to as the “Management Plan”) will be developed for conserving and managing the natural environment of the nominated property, which boasts extremely diverse and unique value, both in the present and the future.

The Management Plan is intended to clarify the basic policies for the operation of systems and the promotion of various projects so that the administrative organs charged with systems concerning conservation of the nominated property can manage the nominated property in a proper and smooth way, while ensuring close mutual collaboration and cooperation with the relevant agencies, local residents, related businesses from the tourism,agricultural, forestry and other industrial sectors, researchers, NPOs, etc.

The nominated and registered areas for Amami Oshima differ. For details on the registered areas, please refer to the "Heritage Area" page.

Structure for Coordination among Stakeholders

For proper conservation and management of the regions covered in this plan, it is necessary to make a unified effort through close coordination and cooperation of the management organizations. For this reason, the Regional Liaison Committee is established as the forum for liaison and coordination among the management organizations. The Regional Liaison Committee builds a consensus, ensures coordination, and checks the progress of implementation on the preparation and revision of the comprehensive management plan that covers the entire regions.

Furthermore, since the area covered by this plan consists of four separate regions, it is necessary to deliver conservation and management in coordination and cooperation based on the opinions of local communities in each region. Therefore, sub-local meetings are set up for each of the four regions under the Regional Liaison Committee to provide opportunities for liaison and coordination through the participation of the management organizations, other related local government organizations, NPOs, etc. The sub-local meetings ensure the proper conservation and management of the regions covered by this plan by building a consensus, facilitating liaison and coordination, managing progress, and making inspections and evaluations of the implementation of measures concerning the preparation and revision of action plans by region and report to and coordinate with the Regional Liaison Committee, as needed.

Mechanism for Adaptive Conservation and Management Based on Scientific Advice

For the conservation and management of the area covered by this plan, adaptive conservation and management is to be delivered based on the results of the monitoring and in consideration of advice from the Scientific Committee on Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, the northern part of Okinawa Island and Iriomote Island natural World Heritage nominated property, which was established in FY2013, consisting of experts, as well as the Amami Working Group and the Okinawa Working Group, which were established under the scientific council in FY2014 for the purpose of entertaining detailed discussions at the local level. The preparation and revision of the comprehensive management plans and action plans by region will be carried out with advice primarily from the working groups.

Also, issues for which individual study teams have been established, such as the small Indian mongoose control project and the protection and recovery programs of national endangered species, are to be addressed under the corresponding study teams. In addition, efforts will be made for close coordination with the Regional Liaison Committee and sub-local meetings to share necessary information about the comprehensive management plan and action plans by region.