UNESCO rejects Coalition's bid to delist Tasmanian World Heritage forest

Updated

The Federal Government has lost a bid to delist more than 70,000 hectares of forest from Tasmania's World Heritage Area (WHA).

The United Nations' World Heritage Committee, meeting in Doha, took just 10 minutes to reject the Government's application to reverse protection for 74,000 hectares.

The area was part of 170,000 hectares added to the WHA last year under Tasmania's forest peace deal enacted by the former state and federal Labor governments.

News of the decision was quickly welcomed by conservation groups, including former Greens leader Bob Brown who described the decision as a "global diplomatic humiliation" for the Abbott Government.

The Coalition had argued the 74,000 hectares were degraded by previous logging and should be unlocked for the timber industry.

But opponents to the move said only 8.6 per cent of the forests had been disturbed, with the rest being pristine old-growth rainforest.

Speaking from Doha, delegates from Portugal said "accepting this delisting would set an unacceptable precedent".

Wilderness Society campaign manager Vica Bayley said the decision showed the world was behind preserving the forest.

"Over here in Doha, environmentalists and Aboriginal Tasmanians are together welcoming this decision because it does protect the integrity of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area and it would protect that in perpetuity," he said.

Prime Minister, State Government disappointed with decision

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Government would study the UN's decision before deciding on its next move, but was disappointed in the development.

"The application that we made to remove from the boundaries of the World Heritage listing - areas of degraded forest, areas of plantation timber - we thought was self-evidently sensible," he said.

Forests remain a battleground The UNESCO world heritage decision for Tasmania's forests is the latest salvo in a decades-long environmental war. The UNESCO world heritage decision for Tasmania's forests is the latest salvo in a decades-long environmental war.

The listing was part of Tasmania's forestry peace deal negotiated between industry, unions and environmentalists.

Federal Labor environment spokesman Mark Butler described the decision as a stunning victory for those who spoke out in support of the forests and the World Heritage listing.

"Why Tony Abbott wanted to go in, rip the agreement up and seek to become only the third country after Tanzania and Oman to seek to delist one of its own properties is still beyond me," he said.

Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman said the Government was also disappointed with the outcome but there was not much his government could do.

"It's disappointing and it does contradict the decision by Tasmanians at two elections in recent times, we will accept it," he told Parliament.

"More importantly though, we have a plan for Tasmania's forest industry that we are seeking to implement."

Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Agriculture and one of the major proponents of delisting the forests, also said the ruling would hurt Tasmania's struggling timber industry.

"We know, in particular, that the special species users in Tasmania will have a much diminished resource," he said.

"They are the top-end value adders of the forest industry we are talking about the wooden boat builders, the craft workers and the furniture makers, they are the first ones impacted by this decision."

The leader of Australia's greens group delegation, Alec Marr, said Senator Colbeck should resign and take responsibility for the Government's failed bid.

"The decision by the Committee to deny World Heritage delisting of these pristine forests has shown reason in the face of ideological spin," he said.

"(Senator Colbeck) has done massive damage to Australia's credibility in the World Heritage Convention and should resign his position immediately."

Senator Colbeck said calls for his resignation were ridiculous and rejected accusations that the Government has embarrassed Australia on the world stage.

"We put forward information that demonstrated the state of these areas, we provided that information to the World Heritage Committee, we put that in the public arena," he said.

"We're well recognised as having quite magnificent wilderness estates and the World Heritage Commission has themselves said we manage them well."

Environmentalists celebrate as 'full-frontal attack' repulsed

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne described the decision as a great win for forests, for wildlife and for Tasmania.

"Thankfully the world community doesn't believe political point scoring is a legitimate reason to abandon a globally significant area and to destroy the outstanding universal values for which it is famous," she said.

Environment Tasmania director Dr Phil Pullinger also welcomed UNESCO's decision.

"They have upheld the integrity of the World Heritage convention against a full-frontal attack from the Abbott Government," he said.

"Importantly for us in Tassie some remarkable areas of old growth forest that were trying to be opened up for logging remain protected as World Heritage wilderness areas... which is a fantastic outcome."

Speaking from Doha, Dr Pullinger said Australia had caused itself a lot of damage by the stands it was taking at the meeting.

"They tried to use some pretty strong tactics around the Great Barrier Reef and the World Heritage Committee basically put the Government on notice... that they will be looking at endangered listing for the reef if the Government does not clean up its act.

"On Tasmania's forests they were pretty clear that it was a poor proposal, that it could send a very bad precedent for the World Heritage Convention, and they unambiguously rejected it."

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Secretary Ruth Langford said the decision was also a win for Tasmanian Aborigines.

"This county not only holds magnificent forest, which provides medicine and good spirits for us, it is also the resting place for ancestors," she said.

Topics: forests, forestry, timber, states-and-territories, federal---state-issues, federal-government, tas, australia

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