The blaze, which took place in an environment supposedly resistant to fire, is the clearest sign climate change has affected the tropics

World heritage Queensland rainforest burned for 10 days – and almost no one noticed

A year ago, a black scar appeared on the far north Queensland landscape. Satellite images and photographs show the aftermath of a bushfire that burned in world heritage tropical rainforest for 10 days.

Almost no one noticed when the Japoon national park caught fire – mature rainforest trees destroyed across about 250 hectares. A single story in a local newspaper, focusing on how the fire started, appears to be the only time it has been reported.

Experts and rainforest authorities say the remarkable extent of the damage, across an environment supposed to naturally suppress fires, is among the clearest evidence that climate change has shifted the paradigm in the tropics.

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“When the rainforest was burning, the first thing we learned was that it can burn,” says Leslie Shirreffs, the chair of the Wet Tropics Management Authority.

“The fire came outside from adjacent land, but ordinarily when it came to rainforest it would stop.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Google Earth image shows fire damage to the tropical wet forest of Nyleta, Queensland. Photograph: Google Earth

Last week the authority released a climate adaptation plan that acknowledged the impacts of climate change on 900,000 hectares of north Queensland tropical rainforest and its ecosystems. The authority has previously said climate change damage to the forest is as bad as coral bleaching on the reef.

Shirreffs says the plan takes into account observations made by Indigenous traditional owners, including things such as changing seasonal indicators and rainfall patterns, and changing bird behaviour.

The adaptation plan focuses on strategies to help build resilience, such as land restoration to strengthen wildlife corridors, pest control and protective habitat elements that might provide species shelter during climate extremes.

Climate threats to the rainforest come in many forms. There is a threat from tropical cyclones, which experts say will increase in intensity and impact due to climate change.

Recent extreme heat events are also worrying. Centuries-old heat records were broken in north Queensland last year, including at forest mountain peaks which recorded a six-day run of temperatures above 36C.

Some creatures, like the rare lemuroid ringtail possum, are unable to survive when temperatures rise above 29C.

“The data now shows that lemuroid ringtail possums and potentially other mountaintop species could become locally extinct, at what was previously their most abundant site, within the coming decade,” Shirreffs says.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fire has burned through this wet tropical forest in Japoon National Park, far North Queensland, leaving animals such as the rare lemuroid ringtail possum vulnerable. Photograph: Supplied

“When you have a 900,000-hectare world heritage area you assume there’s an inbuilt resilience. But that’s without anticipating some of the extremes that are now happening.”

The fire broke out after the forest canopy had already been damaged by two other natural disasters. During the past 15 years the area had been hit by two severe tropical cyclones – Larry and Yasi. Vines that had grown into the cyclone-damaged canopy would carry the fire from the forest floor and into the tops of the trees.

The dry season had been unusually long and temperatures were at extreme highs for almost a week. At the same time Queensland experienced its first ever “catastrophic” fire conditions, sparking threats to lives and property that diverted most of the attention elsewhere, while the Japoon national park burned.

Shirreffs said it was unclear how the rainforest would respond to the fire damage but there were already some worrying signs, including Siam weed, an invasive plant that has begun growing in the burnt area.

“We do see [responding to climate change] as a test and it can be sobering what happens around the place, but the wet tropics is a remarkable place, it’s one of the best managed world heritage areas in the world,” she said.

“We have to look at the practices we know make forests stronger and we need to step things up. We need to do some out-of-the-box stuff. We don’t have a lot of power while the world gets its carbon budgets in order, but we need to do things that we can.”