Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

Transcription

1 Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Respect World Heritage - Protect outstanding values Why the Australian Government s attempt to excise part of the Tasmanian Wilderness should not be approved. IMAGE: Rainforest and tall eucalypts in the upper Florentine, a valley containing caves and Aboriginal heritage. The Australian Government is attempting excise this valley from the Tasmanian Wilderness to allow logging. Rob Blakers The Wilderness Society is an environmental NGO which has been a member of the IUCN since the 1980s. It was founded in Tasmania and has offices in the two major Tasmanian cities.

2 IUCN Evaluation: 2014 The proposed s would reduce integrity of key natural attributes of the property, notably talleucalypt forest connectivity on the eastern boundary of the property. the proposals also appear to reinstate threats that have previously been noted as being of concern by the World Heritage Committee, such as increasing the potential for adjoining logging to impact the property IMAGE: Butlers Gorge - proposed for delisting to allow logging. Rob Blakers Summary Australian Government application for should not be approved, and the State Party required to uphold its commitment to the World Heritage Convention, appropriately manage the Property, and implement previous decisions of the Committee regarding cultural values assessment. Both IUCN and ICOMOS recommend that the proposed minor boundary modification NOT be approved. In 2013, 172,000 ha minor modification to include tall eucalypt forest in Tasmanian Wilderness unanimously approved at World Heritage Committee 37th Session, meets all four natural heritage criteria. In 2014, new Australian Government applied for further minor modification to remove 74,039 ha of tall eucalypt forest including old growth and wilderness forest from Tasmanian Wilderness to enable logging. Australian Government application based on misleading claims that areas for are degraded. Of the74,039 ha proposed for de-listing, over 63,000 hectares is ecologically intact natural vegetation that contains OUVs including giant trees, glacial landscapes, karst, important habitat and ancient Aboriginal heritage. The proposed boundary modification is opposed by a range of NGO, civil society and business organisations in Tasmania including environment groups, academics, Aboriginal Tasmanians, Unions and Forestry Industry representatives and businesses. 2

3 IMAGE: Peak Rivulet- Esperance - the forests in the foreground are proposed for delisting to allow logging. Rob Blakers ICOMOS Evaluation: 2014 ICOMOS considers that this proposal for a reduction in the area of the property fails to make a case that excluding areas of significant cultural attributes will strengthen the credibility of the World Heritage List, as suggested by the State Party. It would appear to weaken rather than strengthen the credibility of the List in terms of working against the best interests of the cultural attributes of the property. The Tasmanian Wilderness (Australia) The Tasmanian Wilderness is a spectacular landscape of glaciated mountains, wild rivers, pristine lakes, unspoilt beaches, wet moorlands and primeval forests. Remote caves contain remnants of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people s occupation of this land during the last ice age. The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the World Heritage List in A mixed site, it satisfies all four criteria for natural heritage and three criteria for cultural heritage. It is 1.58 million hectares in area. The tallest hardwood forests on Earth Forests containing the tallest hardwood trees on Earth occur along the eastern fringe of the Tasmanian Wilderness. Many of these trees are over 600 years old, up to 96 metres tall, and have diameters in excess of six metres. They tower over Gondwanan rainforest species. In the last 200 years forests of this type in other areas of Tasmania have been extensively cleared or subjected to industrial logging, leaving those contained in the Tasmanian Wilderness as important remnants of outstanding universal value. The outstanding universal values of these forests were first recognised by IUCN and the World Heritage Committee in The World Heritage Committee s long-standing concern for Tasmania s tall-eucalypt forests Destructive logging of Tasmania s tall-eucalypt forests stimulated efforts to protect them both in Australia and internationally. The World Heritage Committee has previously expressed concern for these forests in 1989, 1995, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and For example, in St Petersburg in 2012, the Committee welcomed Australia s: intention to provide legislative protection to areas that are identified as being of conservation value, which may possibly include their nomination for inclusion within the property, in line with the Committee s requests at its 32nd (Quebec City, 2008) and 34th (Brasilia, 2010) sessions that the State Party consider, at its own discretion, the potential for additional areas of Outstanding Universal Value to be added to the property; i Addition of the tall-eucalypt forests to the Tasmanian Wilderness in 2013 At its 37th Session in 2013, the World Heritage Committee unanimously approved the minor boundary modification to extend the property to incorporate the major stands of talleucalypt forest. The minor modification was a direct response by Australia to the requests made by the Committee in 2008, 2010 and ,000ha was added to the Tasmanian Wilderness, of which 123,000ha was new reserves created by the Tasmanian Parliament in forest previously zoned for logging, and 48,000ha of existing national parks and other reserves. The addition was also supported by peak forestry industry and union organisations. While the 37th Session unanimously approved the minor modification on natural values alone, it also requested the State Party to undertake further work with regard to the cultural values of the area including to: Undertake further study and consultation with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community in order to provide more detailed information on the cultural value of the additional areas and how these relate to the Outstanding Universal Value of the existing property; ii It is our understanding this work has not been conducted and Aboriginal Tasmanians do not support the proposal. In a recent letter, Aboriginal community leader Rocky Sainty stated that It is likely that there are significant heritage places within the Extension area and without a doubt, if the TWHHA extension area is not upheld the consequences will result in the destruction of an irreplaceable, highly significant Tasmanian Aboriginal landscape that will be lost forever. 3

4 IMAGE: Baby Tassie Devil - a threatened species specifically identified as having important habitat in forests proposed for delisting to allow logging. Dan Fellow Current Australian Government proposal to excise forests from the Tasmanian Wilderness for the purpose of logging (2014) In September 2013 a new Australian Government was elected. The Government has submitted a further minor boundary modification to UNESCO seeking to revoke approximately 74,000 ha of the forests added in The documentation submitted by the State Party is explicit in stating that a motivating factor for the delisting proposal is to meet an election promise and recommence logging. The Australian Government s application for s relies primarily on misleading claims regarding the degradation of the Property due to logging. The dossier provided in January 2014, however, provides no detail, figures or evidence regarding the scale of past logging. There are no maps of logged sites. The dossier advances no arguments pertaining to specific outstanding universal values of the property, or to the integrity and management of the property. The Australian Government submission also identifies the inconsistency of new protection of natural areas with Government policy as a reason for the. Australian Government claims of degradation. The lack of supporting evidence provided by Australia, spatial analyses and comparison with the World Heritage Convention obligations indicate Australia s claims regarding degradation due to logging are greatly exaggerated and without foundation. Recent GIS analyses, consistent with analysis by the Tasmanian state-owned forest manager iii, show that the Australian Government s claims of widespread degradation do not stand up to scrutiny and demonstrates that the government has grossly misrepresented the amount of historical logging within the area proposed for. Proposed 2014 *Area logged inside proposed 74,039 ha 7600 ha Logged area as % of proposed 10% Logged area Area of in proposed oldgrowth as % forest in of TWWHA proposed 0.5% 30,000 ha * Logged area is post-1960 logging only. Very little pre-1960 logging occurred in proposed s due to the absence of major roads. Professor Brendan Mackey, who coordinated the conservation work done by an Australian Government appointed expert panel assessing Tasmania s forests in , has also recently conducted an analysis of the 74,039 ha proposed for using a specially developed disturbance dataset. Professor Mackey concluded that: 86 per cent is natural forest that has not been industrially logged and 4 per cent is heavily disturbed. iv Subsequently, a politician in the Australian Government has confirmed that the area of plantations within the proposed is only 10 ha and that the area of oldgrowth is over 28,000 ha. v Australia s obligations under the World Heritage Convention The approved 2013 minor modification application by the Australian Government made explicit the case for inclusion of some previously logged areas for management and property resilience reasons: Within some of the proposed additions there are areas that have been previously logged and are in the process of revegetation. However, with careful management, there are opportunities to minimise the impacts of disturbances, to progressively restore the condition of any degraded areas and improve the resilience of the existing property. vi As a signatory to the World Heritage Convention, Australia is obliged to carry out the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of natural and cultural heritage. vii As such, the presence of small areas recovering from logging is not a reason to revoke great swathes of intact forest from listing. Permanent removal of degraded areas from the logging cycle will allow rehabilitation to proceed. Over time, values will recover. Governments are currently rehabilitating other sites within the Tasmanian Wilderness, including a former mine at Melaleuca in the far south-west, and logged areas in the Styx and Florentine Valleys. Around the world, there are many examples of World Heritage properties that contain areas logged prior to inscription where rehabilitation has occurred for example, the Redwood National and State Parks of the USA. viii Concerns regarding precedent The Australian Government s application is explicit in seeking removal of areas from the Tasmanian Wilderness for political and purported economic reasons. If such an application were to be successful, with inevitable impacts on Outstanding Universal Values, it would set an alarming precedent with broad ramifications. A diminution of the protection afforded by World Heritage based on a successful removal of these areas would appear to have significant consequences beyond the immediate damage to the Outstanding Universal Values of the Tasmanian Wilderness. 38th Session of the World Heritage Committee Doha Despite the urging of logging industry representatives and businesses, forestry unions, environment Non-Government Organisations and other civil society groups, the Australian Government refuses to withdraw its provocative and disrespectful application to overturn the listing of some areas added to the Tasmanian Wilderness in We ask that the World Heritage Committee reject the application to revoke this listing. We also ask the committee to call on Australia to honour its obligations under the World Heritage Convention, to carry out the requested cultural heritage assessment and consultation work, and to manage the Tasmanian Wilderness to preserve its outstanding universal values and boundary integrity. 4

5 Great Western Tiers Butlers Gorge Upper Florentine Weld Valley Picton Valley Peak Rivulet Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area -proposed 2014 Area Proposed by Australian Government for from World Heritage Area 2014 (74,000 ha) National Other National Parks Parks and Reserves and Reserves Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area 5

6 IMAGE: Butlers Gorge - proposed for delisting to allow logging. Rob Blakers References i 36 COM 7B.36, Tasmanian Wilderness (Australia) (C/N 181 ter), ii Decision 37 COM 8B:44 WHC-13/37.COM/20, page 215 iii ABC Fact check: Tony Abbott s Tasmanian wilderness claim doesn t check out, 8 April See table provided by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator Richard Colbeck. 26/tony-abbott-tasmanian-wilderness-claim-does-not-check-out/ iv.ibid v.ibid vi Commonwealth of Australian (2013) Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (Australia) Proposal for a Minor Modification gov.au/system/files/pages/f99dbb51-03c2-4eb2-a66e-87c b4/files/ twwha-dossier.pdf, p21. vii Article 5, number 4; Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage; viii Contact details For further information, please contact Vica Bayley, The Wilderness Society, 130 Davey Street Hobart Tasmania Australia vica.bayley@wilderness.org.au Mobile: IMAGE: The Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle, Australia s largest raptor is wholly dependent on tall, oldgrowth eucalypt forests for nesting habitat. Dave Watts