UN advice prompts Tasmanian Government to abandon World Heritage forest logging plans

The Tasmanian Government has reportedly abandoned plans to log areas of its World Heritage-listed forest based on advice from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

The World Heritage forest, one of the world's largest temperate rainforests, spans over 1.5 million hectares and is home to rare plants and animals.

Since coming to office and abandoning a prior forestry agreement, the current Tasmanian Government has been planning to selectively log its World Heritage-listed wilderness - logging special species of timber within the forest, such as blackwood, silver wattle and Huon pine.

However, following a mission to the wilderness in November, a UNESCO report urged the Tasmanian government to "ensure that commercial logging and mining are not permitted within the entire property.”

The report stated "while the mission considers the demand (for special species timber harvesting) legitimate per se, it does not consider a World Heritage property recognised for its outstanding cultural and natural values the place to experiment with commercial logging of any kind.”

While under no legal obligation to do so, the Tasmanian Government has accepted the recommendation.

In a statement advising of the decision, Matthew Groom, Tasmania's Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, explained “it was important that the mission experts had the opportunity to hear all sides of the debate, and having done so, their clear advice to the World Heritage Committee is that there should (be) no timber harvesting in the World Heritage Area including for specialty timbers."

Minister Groom also acknowledged that some people within the special species timber industry "will be disappointed by this outcome”, adding “we ensured they were able to put their case directly to the mission.”

Spanning a quarter of Tasmania the wilderness is home to a diverse array of plants and animals often found nowhere else in the world.

In 2014, the Federal Government, led by then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, unsuccessfully tried to remove parts of the Tasmanian Wilderness from the UNESCO World Heritage list, in a bid to enable logging of special timbers.

As part of its report, UNESCO also recommended that tourism in the area be carefully managed to ensure its future for generations to come.

Image: The Gordon River in Tasmania's World Heritage area. Image courtesy of George Apostolidis.

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