Ogasawara Islands World Heritage Area: An Outstanding Ecological Heritage

The Ogasawara Islands are created in the process of island-arc formation due to the ongoing subduction of an oceanic plate; these islands have witnessed unique speciation histories due to their remoteness from mainland Japan and any other continental landmass. The Ogasawara Islands were inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List as a Natural Property due to high species endemism, adaptive radiation, and low extinction rates, but the total landform–landscape–ecosystem uniqueness and value deserves to be upheld as a natural heritage. Today, these islands have become one of the premier ecotourism destinations in Japan, but at the same time, tourism has the potential to negatively affect these isolated environments. This chapter explains the outstanding universal value of this heritage and analyzes the threat of invasive species for native ecosystems and challenges for managing tourism in a way that can help preserve this highly valuable system.