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What Is the “Holistic Approach” to Address Increasing Tourism/Visitors Pressure in Iriomote Island?

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What Is the “Holistic Approach” to Address Increasing Tourism/Visitors Pressure in Iriomote Island? A review on Nomination of Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, the northern part of Okinawa Island and Iriomote Island for inscription on the World Heritage List What is the “holistic approach” to address increasing tourism/visitors pressure in Iriomote Island? November, 2017 Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund Acknowledgement The Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund extends a special thanks to Dr. Maki Okamura (Acting Director of Iriomote-Ohara Wildcat Institute), Chief research fellow of ICCRC, who fully supervised this report. Published in September 2017, by Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund 3F Suehiro Bld.2-5-4 Toranomon Minato-ku Tokyo 105-0001 Japan Phone: +81-3-3595-8088 Fax: +81-3-3595-8090 Email: [email protected] © 2017 Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. 2 Contents Background and Objective……………………………………………………………………….…..4 1 More caution is needed to address increased pressure on the natural property caused by an increase of tourism/visitor pressure due to being added to the World Heritage List…….5 1.1 Expected increases in the number of visitors /visitors for “eco-tour” entered in Iriomote Island………………………………………………………………………………....5 1) Relationship between number of visitors and transportation………………………….5 【Entry into Ishigaki Island by air】………………………………………………………….5 【Entry into Ishigaki Island by sea】………………………………………………………...6 【Entry from Ishigaki Island to Iriomote Island】…………………………………………..8 【Breakdown of number of entry by port (Ohara, Iriomote-Island East or Uehara, Iriomote-Island West)】………………………………………………………………….…8 【Policy to promote the increase of domestic and overseas visitors to Iriomote Island】…………………………………………………………………………………….10 2) Use of rental car likely to be employed by visitors for “eco-tours”……………………11 3) Increase of number and the diversifying of types of “eco-tour” business………..…11 4) Intermediate conclusion……………………………………………………………….…14 1.2 Correlation between an increase of visitors for “eco-tours” and increasing road kills of Iriomote cat……………………………………………………………………………….…15 1) Trend of road kills of Iriomote cats………………………………………………………15 2) Why Iriomote cat would have acclimated to road?...................................................18 2 Why Total volume control should be required in Iriomote Island – A case study of the stream ecosystems in the North Coast Section………………………19 2.1 Key elements of the North Coast section in terms of conservation of Iriomote cat’s habitat…………………………………………………………………………………….19 2.2 Increase of “eco-tourism” use in the North coast section…………………………………20 2.3 “Eco-tourism” use in Oomija River and the existing management of it……………….…21 2.4 “Eco-tourism” use in Yutsun River and the existing management of it………………….23 2.5 Summary of the status on eco-tours and the management of it in North coast section..27 2.6 Consideration of a regulation and monitoring of “eco-tourism” in Iriomote Island by the competent administrations…………………………………………………………...27 3 Conclusion and recommendation……………………………………………………………..…28 3.1 Conclusion: It is necessary to introduce an unbiased comprehensive management of tourism/visitors pressure, which strictly meets the following 4 requirements……………28 1) Seeing the whole island as one unit……………………………………………………..28 2) Consistency and Integrity……………………………………………………………..…..28 3) Sufficient effectiveness…………………………………………………………………....28 4) Provide regulations that serve as a total volume control of tourists/visitors pressure……………………………………………………………………………………..29 3.2 Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………..29 References……………………………………………………………………………………………30 3 Background and objective On 17 October, 2017, the IUCN experts arrived in Iriomote Island to conduct an on-the-spot review on the nomination of Iriomote Island for inscription in the World Heritage List. On 19 October, the Government of Japan hosted a meeting between IUCN experts and local stakeholders of Iriomote Island as a part of the on-site review by IUCN. At the meeting, the experts then noted their comments as tentative evaluations, including the outcome of the on-the-spot review. The most important points of their comments are as follows; Firstly, in the context of inscription on the World Heritage List the most outstanding issue for Iriomote Island is the potential for adverse effects from tourism/visitors pressure on the ecosystem. They also expressed a sincere concern about the prediction of an increase in visitors to Iriomote Island, predicted to be more significant than the 3 other nominated areas. Based on their observations, they suggested that the key measure for protection and management of Iriomote Island as a World Natural Heritage is to introduce a “holistic (comprehensive)” approach (management) to address increasing tourism/visitor pressure. They also referred to the fact that only some voluntary restrictions have been introduced in a few rivers so far, and recommended the participants at the meeting to have a vision with regard to the limit of the number of visitors to be allowed to enter in the Island overall in other words, to envision what the carrying capacity is for tourists. Judging from their comments , the requirements for the said holistic or comprehensive management should include; (a) Thinking about the island as a whole unit; (b) Consistency and Integrity; (c) Sufficient effectiveness; and (d) Serving as a total volume control to tourism/visitors pressure. While JTEF evaluated and made recommendations on necessity for extending the areas of the nominated property and a significant improvement of the management plan in the previous report , this report intends to add 2 new points as follows; Firstly, more caution is needed to address increased pressure on the natural property caused by an increase of tourism/visitor pressure due to being added to the World Heritage List will be discussed (Section 1). Iriomote Island has already experienced sharp increases in tourists triggered by specific events in the past, so a similar situation is likely to happen if it becomes listed (“1.1”). Recently, the number of Iriomote cat road kills has been increasing and reached a record-high of 7 cases in 2016. This trend may be caused by an acclimatization of individual cats to human beings possibly due to the past 10 years of increasing numbers of visitors coming for invasive “eco-tours” which have penetrated into the critical habitat of Iriomote cats (“1.2”). Based on this, introduction of a comprehensive 4 management of tourism/visitor pressure, which strictly meets the 4 requirements, will be necessary (“1.3”). Secondly, the total volume control to be placed on tourism/visitor pressure where management is a serious issue on Iriomote Island will be discussed. The official institution of a comprehensive management scheme needs to first of all be based on a set of concepts, principles and legal framework for the entire island. Then step-down management for the especially vulnerable and small-scale ecosystems separately designed units can be effectively planned, implemented and enforced. Just what level of planning and enforcement required to manage Iriomote Island should be discussed thoroughly. Especially the case study of stream ecosystems in the North Coast Section which is one of the most critical habitats for the Iriomote Cat (“Section 2”). 1 More caution is needed to address increased pressure on the natural property caused by an increase of tourism/visitor pressure due to being added to the World Heritage List 1.1 Expected increases in the number of visitors /visitors for “eco-tour” entered in Iriomote Island 1) Relationship between number of visitors and transportation The visitors from inside Japan and overseas would arrive at Ishigaki Airport or Ishigaki Port (by cruise ships), and then board an express liner / ferry or a charter boat at the Ishigaki Remote Islands Terminal Port bound for either Ohara (East Iriomote) or Uehara, West Iriomote. 【Entry into Ishigaki Island by air】 Figure 1 show the number of visitors who arrived at Ishigaki Airport. Figure 1：Visitors per year at Ishigaki Airport 1200000 1000000 800000 Number 600000 400000 200000 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 FY (April ‐ March) （Made up based on the estimation of entry for tourism compiled in "Statistics on Ishigaki") published by Ishigaki City） 5 The number of visitors who arrived into Ishigaki Airport which is the gateway of the Yaeyama area has continued to increase almost steadily. It was significantly pushed up by the liberalization of air fare in 2000, then suppressed by the economic recession subsequent to the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and continued to decline until the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. However it recovered rapidly by the launch of the new Ishigaki Airport in 2013 which improved the access to Ishigaki Island supported by direct flights provided by Low-cost carrier (LCC) airlines. Visitors exceeded 1 million for the first time in the year. The number of visitors declined slightly due to the withdrawal of a LCC company but it soon recovered by the entry of another LCC, and is maintaining a record-high-level now. 【Entry into Ishigaki Island by sea】 Figure 2 shows the number of visitors who arrived at Ishigaki Port by sea. Figure 2： Visitors per year arriving at Ishigaki Port 250000 200000 Number 150000 100000 50000 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 FY (April ‐ March) （Made up based on the estimation of entry for tourism compiled in "Statistics on Ishigaki" published by Ishigaki City） The entry by cruise ships from Taiwan and South East Asia into Ishigaki Port has increased. The number of visitors can be determined by the number of entry and the size of the ships. The number of entries was ranked 3rd in the country1 at 65 times in 2013, which followed #1 Yokohama Port (152 times) and #2 Kobe Port (101 times). In 2016, 11 cruise ships entered in Ishigaki Port at 84 times in total2.
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