[CPEO-MEF] BIOTA, GLOBAL: Letter cals for protection of Okinawa's (Japan) Dugong

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

For Immediate Release
December 3, 2009
Center for Biological Diversity

More Than 400 Conservation, Animal Protection, Peace and Justice Groups 
Plead With President Obama to Commute Okinawa Dugong Death Sentence

Letter Calling for Cancellation of Military Base Expansion in
Rare Sea Mammal's Japanese Habitat Hand-delivered to White House

WASHINGTON - Representatives of conservation, animal protection, and 
peace and justice groups representing more than 10 million Americans 
hand-delivered a letter today to the White House and State Department 
urging President Barack Obama to cancel plans to expand a U.S. military 
base near Henoko in Okinawa, Japan. The base expansion would destroy the 
prime feeding ground of the few manatee-like Okinawa dugong remaining in 
the world (believed to number about 50). The plan to expand the base - 
Camp Schwab, in northeast Okinawa - calls for filling in parts of Oura 
Bay and the surrounding area. The 1.5-mile-long airbase would also 
permanently disrupt one of the most biologically diverse areas in the 
Pacific.

Okinawa has been called the "Galapagos of the East" because of its rich 
and unique biological diversity. The Henoko area provides important 
habitat for numerous rare wildlife species in addition to the dugong – 
an endangered marine mammal related to the manatee and a cultural icon 
in Japan – and three species of endangered sea turtles.

The U.S. government recently announced that it would reconsider the base 
expansion plan in light of the massive local opposition to the project.

...

For the entire press release, see
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/dugong-12-03-2009.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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