Forbidden but not forgotten forests: Foraging and UNESCO policy restrictions in Indigenous Tokunoshima


Hanika Nakagawa, Dalhousie University

Tokunoshima is a part of the Amami Archipelago in Japan that has been named to the “Blue Zone” referencing longevity and healthy lives, specifically, part of the Okinawa blue zone (Buettner and Skemp 2016). These islands are, however, peppered with evidence of military occupation, both domestic and American. Facing cultural, economic, military, environmental and industrial forms of violence, here considered together as “slow violence” (Nixon 2011), Islanders sought some form of protection from further environmental degradation and encroachment, finally achieving it in the form of UNESCO World Heritage status in July 2021 (UNESCO 2021). UNESCO policies dictate that 50% of a land mass must be “untouched” to qualify for World Heritage status under the natural heritage category 10, the most restrictive and protective category. Nonetheless, some islanders, like my grandmother, faced by UNESCO restrictions, choose to ignore the UNESCO policies about human foraging for food, and still collect tsuwabuki , ferns, mushrooms, and other edibles from forest gardens. These practices embody the classic romantic, utopic, enticing view of the neorural (Snikersproge 2023), but also hides invisible policies of rural dispossession and “letting die” (Li 2009), specifically as the result of refusal to clean up contaminants in agricultural run-off and sugarcane factory waste before these entered the freshwater supply and/or the ocean. In this paper, I will return to my Masters thesis data (XXXX 2023), to elaborate on the theoretical framework of slow violence from an Indigenous Amami perspective. I suggest that slow violence is not merely enacted by industry in the creation of toxic spaces, but now also operates within the “protections” offered by UNESCO, restricting the food practices and food memories Indigenous peoples. New UNESCO policies rupture the relationship between the Indigenous Amami peoples of Tokunoshima and their land, their cultural practices, their food systems, and their identities. Soon, nothing will be left but nostalgia. The places of foraging protected by the habu (extremely poisonous vipers) are forest gardens. The forests in the mountains are a garden kept by many keepers; the humans interact with root systems, insects, forest creatures, airborne seeds and particles, and winds—and together these make pathways and clearings for the Amami Black rabbits to pause. Forest gardens are the spots where acorns can be gathered in the fall, where islanders follow time-worn ancestral paths maintained for human safety from the hidden habu in the underbrush—these are also a place for the endangered and protected Amami Black rabbits to seek refuge from the habu. The Black Rabbit, now a protected species, is also the mascot for/face of environmentalism on Tokunoshima, even though it was once a candidate for human consumption, hunted in its forest garden. The habu preys on Black Rabbits, but also protects the garden, preventing people from going into the deep brush or staying too long.[1] [1] The birds warn other beings that it is time to leave, thereby preventing over-picking, ensuring that sufficient food is left for the wild boars. But, forest gardens are now havens for forbidden fruits, protected from humans by UNESCO. Consequently, forest gardens are becoming dangerous for all beings, undone by the very practices meant to protect them. This paper will conclude with words of caution. UNESCO rushes to protect “nature” from her human “enemy,” not recognizing that human footsteps are necessary in caring for forests, and failing to recognize that human are products of food as nourishment, and thus grown from gardens. Indigenous peoples are an important part of the environment in some protected spaces. Therefore, I conclude asking why Tokunoshima sought UNESCO World Heritage status, given that many beings are not protected by UNESCO, and also asking that we consider robbing peoples of their memories, their food systems, their cultural practices as part of the theoretical framework of slow violence.

This paper will be presented at the following session: