In a move that’s a significant rebuff for Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government the United Nations World Heritage Committee has been advised to reject a government bid to delist 74,000 hectares of forest in the island state of Tasmania.
Last year 172,000 hectares was added to Tasmania’s World Heritage area under the state’s forest peace deal.
When it came to power in the September federal election the Liberal-National government said the boundary extension had been rushed through and was therefore not valid.
It wanted 74,000 hectares delisted, claiming it had been degraded from past logging and should be opened up to forestry.
However, a draft decision released in the French capital, Paris, late last night recommended the UNESCO administered World Heritage Committee not approve changes to the boundaries.
That draft decision is based on two reports by conservation bodies.
The first is from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which said the Australian submission to the World Heritage Council contained “no detailed justifications or explanations” and only “simple statements” that the area had been logged.
Its report said just 10 per cent of the area in question had previously been logged.
The World Heritage Committee was also advised if the boundaries were reduced, important Aboriginal heritage could be excluded.
Liberal Senator for Tasmania Richard Colbeck has said the area contains some plantations that have been logged that should never have been World Heritage listed.
He said Australia was not giving up on its bid to reduce the area.
Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said the draft decision in Paris was a major win for environmental groups.
“I think this is a win for common sense and a win for the facts and the evidence,” Mr Bayley said.
“The Federal Government claim was always fraudulent in claiming that this area had been degraded, and that was always going to run counter to the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage principles.”
Australian Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne joined Mr Bayley in calling on the Liberal-National government to now withdraw its application.
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I call on Tony Abbott to immediately withdraw Australia’s application to adjust the boundary and not have it proceed to the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Qatar in June,” Senator Milne said.
“This demeaning act of environmental vandalism, which so damages our global reputation, should end now.”
Earlier, a Labor-Greens-dominated Senate committee examined the delisting bid and handed down a damning report.
Environmentalists will travel to Doha next month to lobby the World Heritage Committee when it makes its final decision on the forest delisting.
