Born in Ireland on the 4 January 1980, Sandra Flavin will benefit from a fellowship to study at University College, Dublin, to subsequently deepen her studies on the Island of Iriomote, the second largest island of the Ryukyu archipelago. Originally a journalist, S. Flavin has redirected her career towards the management of world heritage through her interest in the interaction between man and its natural environment as well as in the cultural interpretation of the latter. Her choice has also been motivated by her experience on the island of Okinawa, situated within the inscribed World heritage List site of the Kingdom of the Ryukyu where she spent some time as a volunteer in the Okinawa environmental and cultural network. The impact of tourism on the island and its management will also form part of her study, thereby contributing to the work preparatory to the possible candidacy of the island, a potential natural site, possibly widening to a cultural site of the kingdom of the Ryukyu.


Gusuku sites and properties associated with the Ryuku kingdom, Japan

This group of sites and monuments represents five hundred years of the history of the Ryuku (XII-XVII centuries). The ruined castles which stand on imposing heights illustrate the social structure of a great part of this period, whereas the holy sites remain as silent witness to the rare survival of a former form of religion up to the contemporary era. The multiple economic and cultural contacts of the Ryuku islands during this period are expressed in the unique character of the culture that they forged. The sacred sites of the Ryuku, constitute, notably, an exceptional example of the indigenous form of a cult and the nature of the ancestors who have survived intact until the modern age.

Island of Iriomote: At the time of the workshop on "world heritage and marine diversity", held at Hanoi in 2002; Iriomote and the Sekissei lagoon were identified as having "significant components" of outstanding, universal value. The group of experts had recommended that Japan pursued the most extensive studies to determine what criteria of outstanding universal value of the site could be retained and to proceed to submit this candidature for nomination. More than a third of the island of Iriomote as well as the coral lagoon which extends up to the island Ishigaki have Japanese National Park status. The island contains a number of diverse ecosystems, including a rich marine biodiversity and a unique mangrove ecosystem on the Urauchi river. It also contains the Prionailurus bengalensis iriometeni, a wild nocturnal cat threatened to extinction. This wild cat plays an important in local folklore.


Project Objectives

• To determiner whether the island of Iriomote and the surrounding marine park, fulfil the criteria of outstanding universal value for world natural heritage;
• To analyse the potential site management plan and its implementation (in particular in what concerns tourism management, for example, different management for mass tourism and ecotourism, compatibility between tourism and site conservation);
• To analyse the impact of tourist development on the sensitive habitats of the island and on the local population (possible transfer of traditional industries such as agriculture and fishing to industries linked to tourism);
• To analyse the level of protection accorded to the island and to the neighbouring marine park by National Park status and by other national and international instruments in order to determine whether a complementary protection is required to respond to the management requirements of a site inscribed on the World Heritage list and whether the nomination process can serve to set up management powers on the island.