<\/p>\n
Karli, our oceans campaigner just back from leading our Southern Ocean Whale Expedition<\/a>, writes:<\/p>\n This is the 21st century. It is mind-boggling that anyone still considers that it is OK to destroy a coral reef with the construction of anything, and to add insult, the proposed construction is an airbase for the military \u00e2\u0080\u0093 in a community that is deeply concerned with peace. The habitat of Japan\u00e2\u0080\u0099s dugongs, as well as abundant reef and seagrass species, should be the site of a marine reserve \u00e2\u0080\u0093 not a reserve for marines.<\/p>\n With the Rainbow Warrior, we helped to raise the issue to a new level with international media attention helping the cause of local protesters, who had occupied the drilling platforms day in, day out for over a year already. Shortly after, the original proposal was scrapped. But a new proposal, still impacting the marine area that the dugongs depend on, replaced it.<\/p>\n Now, the protest against the airbase construction has reached a crucial point. The Naha Defense Facilities Administration Agency is about to begin an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed airbase. We are demanding that this EIA is a sound and transparent assessment, and involves the local community.<\/p>\n The local protest groups are taking this opportunity to gather international support to stop the airbase and save the dugong. They have set up an \n \n<\/a> Thanks in advance! \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00c2\u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert Karli, our oceans campaigner just back from leading our Southern Ocean Whale Expedition, writes: Two years ago, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior visited Henoko in Okinawa, Japan. The purpose of our visit was to support a local protest against the construction of a new airbase for the US military. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![](\"http:\/\/weblog.greenpeace.org\/oceandefenders\/karli-s.jpg\")
Two years ago, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior visited Henoko in Okinawa<\/a>, Japan. The purpose of our visit was to support a local protest against the construction of a new airbase for the US military. The proposed airbase was to be constructed over a coral reef, the home of the last remaining dugong population in Japan.<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.thepetitionsite.com\/takeaction\/511549172″>online petition<\/a>, giving you a chance to have your say on this issue.<\/p>\n![\"Dugong\"](\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/raw\/image_full\/international\/photosvideos\/photos\/the-dugong-or-sea-cow-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u00c2\u00a9 Roberto Sozzani<\/div>\n
\nPlease read and
\nhttp:\/\/www.thepetitionsite.com\/takeaction\/511549172″>sign the petition<\/a>, and help spread the word.<\/p>\n