Inscription Process
In 2003, full-scale efforts to inscribe the Ogasawara Islands on the Natural World Heritage List started. In March 2003, the Ministry of the Environment and the Forestry Agency jointly established the Study Group on Candidate Sites for Natural World Heritage consisting of academic experts, and after a total of four discussions, the three regions of the Ogasawara Islands, Shiretoko, and Ryukyu Islands were selected as candidate sites for new Natural World Heritage sites.
On the Ogasawara Islands, Regional Liaison Committees and Scientific Councils were held to allow many discussions. In addition, the examination of the nomination dossier and management plans was advanced, while measures against non-native species were strengthened, and in January 2007, Japan’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites describing the Ogasawara Islands was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. In January 2010, a nomination dossier was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre for inscription on the World Heritage List.
As a review for inscription, an on-site survey was conducted by IUCN experts in July 2010, and in the IUCN evaluation report compiled in May 2011, the Ogasawara Islands were evaluated as “suitable for inscription as a World Heritage Site”.
Based on the result of this evaluation, the World Heritage Committee held in June 2011 decided to inscribe the Ogasawara Islands as a Natural World Heritage site.
