6/21/2005 1365

DUGONG CULTURAL SUIT APPROVED

On 3-2-05 a federal judge cleared the way for a unique lawsuit seeking to protect the endangered Okinawa dugong from the devastating effects of a planned 1.5 mile long U.S. airbase on a coral reef on the east coast of Okinawa, Japan. The Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, and the Japanese plaintiffs in the case believe the base would destroy the reef and possibly drive the dugong extinct. The Okinawa dugong has been reduced to just 50 animals.

The suit is as unique as the dugong, because it seeks to protect the imperiled creature not under environmental laws, but under cultural protection laws. The U.S. National Historic Preservation Act requires that all federal agencies—including the Department of Defense (DOD)—abide by the historic preservation laws in the countries where their activities have an impact. Japan has placed the dugong on its register of protected cultural properties because it is a cultural treasure and icon to the people of Okinawa.

Exemplifying a spectacular insensitivity, the Department of Defense asked that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the dugong is not a cultural or historic entity by American (or least DOD) standards. In her ruling, Judge Patel reminded the DOD that the very concept of culture means that not everyone has the same values and process as America. The DOD argument, she wrote, "def[ies] the basic proposition that just as cultures vary, so too will their equivalent legislative efforts to preserve their culture." The case will now go forward and examine the likely impacts of the airbase on the dugong.