UNESCO Mission visits Tasmania to examine impacts of logging on Tasmania’s World Heritage Area

Tasmania's Upper Florentine. Photo: Rob Blakers

In March 2008, a high-level international Mission visited Tasmania to investigate the management of areas of heritage-value adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA), and, in particular, whether logging and associated burning are damaging the integrity of the TWWHA.

 The Mission consisted of representatives of the World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The Wilderness Society sees this visit as an opportunity to rectify the inadequate boundaries of the TWWHA.

The TWWHA covers 20% of Tasmania. It was originally inscribed on 14 December 1982 – the first day of the Franklin Blockade. It was expanded in 1989, but its boundaries have been drawn to exclude magnificent forests that Tasmania’s logging industry wishes to exploit.

The forests concerned include those in the Weld, middle Huon, Styx, upper Florentine, Counsel, Mersey and Meander valleys. These valleys contain giant trees, temperate rainforest, wild rivers, threatened wildlife, limestone caves and ancient Aboriginal heritage. They are part of one of the great temperate wilderness areas on Earth.

The Wilderness Society took the mission delegates on a helicopter flight along the eastern border of the TWWHA and landed in the Weld and Florentine valleys.  Coincidentally, a fire started as a result of the blasting of a tree with explosives by logging contractors in an oldgrowth forest on the edge of the World Heritage Area while we were in the area. We actually heard the blast and saw the resulting smoke. This was a reminder of the dangers from logging to adjacent heritage areas.

The delegates also received a number of presentations from Tasmanian environment groups working hard to see that World Heritage values are not destroyed.  Topics covered included the Tarkine, Recherche Bay and the failure of Australia’s environment laws to protect the heritage values of forests.

The Wilderness Society has been working to protect Tasmania’s wilderness for over 30 years. We urged the Mission to recommend the extension of the World Heritage Area to include the areas listed above.

Download the Executive Summary of the report here (PDF, 2mb)