Japan's Shiretoko Designated A World Natural Heritage Site

The Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido was listed as a World Natural Heritage Site at the 29th Session of the World Heritage Committee, which was held in Durban, South Africa from July 10 to 17, 2005. With this new addition, Japan now has three World Natural Heritage Sites including the forests of Shirakami-sanchi (which straddles Aomori and Akita prefectures) and Yakushima (Kagoshima Prefecture). Counting 10 World Cultural Heritage Sites, Japan's world heritage treasures amount to 13 in total.

The committee highly valued the Shiretoko Peninsula, designated a national park in 1964, for its rich marine ecosystem in which sea ice plays an important role and for its wilderness land ecosystem, as well for its importance as a habitat for rare birds such as Steller's Sea Eagles, Blakiston's Fish Owls and White-tailed Sea Eagles.

It is estimated that there are only about 6,000 to 7,000 Steller's Sea Eagles left on the planet, and Shiretoko has the world's largest wintering population of this species. More than 2,000 of the birds have been observed there in some years. In addition, some 120 Blakiston's Fish Owls, one of the world's most endangered species, with only about 1,000 surviving worldwide, live in Hokkaido, mostly in the Shiretoko area. Shiretoko is a rare place where the Fish Owl hunts its food in a completely natural environment.


- Amur-Okhotsk Sea Ice Research Project Planned (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/901-e

Posted: 2005/11/27 11:46:37 PM
Japanese version