UNESCO finds World Heritage Area tourism plan lacking

The Wilderness Society of Tasmania has backed UNESCO’s call for a moratorium on further development of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area. LATEST >>

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The Wilderness Society of Tasmania has backed UNESCO’s call for a moratorium on further development of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area.

The Mercury reported today that the UNESCO committee called for developments to be stopped inside TWWH areas amid concerns a long-delayed tourism plan was inadequate.

“The Wilderness Society Tasmania backs UNESCO’s effective call for a moratorium on any further development of the Tasmania Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) so that an Aboriginal cultural values survey, with the support and active involvement of the palawa, can be completed first,” Tom Allen of the Wilderness Society said.

Campaign manager for the Wilderness Society, Tom Allen. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“In a few years time, if the TWWHA, the world’s highest-rated World Heritage wilderness, continues to be mistreated, privatised and developed, it could join the Great Barrier Reef on the World Heritage in-danger list.

“It’s not too late for the Tasmanian government to change its policies that are causing these problems.”

Mr Allen said the World Heritage Committee has expressed a number of requests and concerns about the state government’s Tourism Master Plan, and the ongoing tourism expressions of interest process.

“However, just like local Tasmanian communities, we expect that UNESCO — the ultimate stakeholder — will be ignored too,” he said.

“The World Heritage Committee also said that all proposed tourism developments should be subject to adequate environment impact assessments and yet the opposite is the case.

“The Gutwein government continues to help Wild Drake get its helicopter-accessed bad idea up, despite the government’s own parks agency finding it would degrade nearly 5000 hectares of the highest-rated World Heritage wilderness in the world.

“We agree with UNESCO that the logical approach would be to conduct the cultural assessment first and pause any further tourism development but believe that this logic will be ignored because, in reality, the Gutwein government has a development-at-any-cost approach and its talk about conservation and ‘sensitive development’ is essentially meaningless.”

EARLIER:

A UNESCO committee has called for the brakes to be put on developments inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area — and has raised concerns that a long-delayed tourism plan was inadequate.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee has asked for details of development plans in the World Heritage Area.

A draft decision of the Committee calls on government “to avoid any development at the property before the Detailed Plan for a Comprehensive Cultural Assessment is implemented”.

It also “reminds the State Party of the importance of carrying out impact assessments, and to submit to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies, details of any project that may affect the property’s Outstanding Universal Values.”

The state government’s secretive Expressions of Interest program for developments inside national parks has raised the ire of conservationists.

These include plans for a helicopter-serviced development on Halls Island in Lake Malbena the Walls of Jerusalem.

Lake Malbena, Central Plateau, Tasmania.

The Committee said the World Heritage Centre and advisory bodies have found the Tourism Management Plan — requested in 2015 and delivered in 2021 — lacking.

It raised a number of concerns with the plan, including “the lack of more specific guidance on how exactly the wilderness values of the property should be considered in decision-making processes related to tourism management, and how the preparation of the Plan considered the parallel Expression of Interest process for tourism development projects, and how this process may be affected by the Plan, once finalised”.

“Furthermore, the Plan reflects an imbalance by mainly focusing on the Aboriginal community and leaving out other cultural heritage elements.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the Liberals’ “development-at-any-cost chickens are coming home to roost”.

“On the same day UNESCO declared the Great Barrier Reef in danger, the Committee has delivered a hefty smack to the Liberals’ Expressions of Interest process for development in the World Heritage Area,” she said.

“It’s clear the World Heritage Committee’s concerns about the EOI process have not been assuaged by the government’s Tourism Master Plan. In fact, far from it.

“Rather, they have cited further concerns and requested any development that impacts upon the World Heritage Area’s Outstanding Universal Values be referred back to them.

“Of course they don’t trust the Gutwein Government, why would they?”

Halls Island at Lake Malbena. Pic, Rob Blakers

CEO of Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, Luke Martin, said he believes the Australian government will raise questions about the practicality and legality of such overreach.

‘From our perspective, it’s also a perplexing position for them to now take, given they approved the TWWHA Management Plan five years ago with none of these conditions attached.”

Premier Peter Gutwein said he had sought advice on the content of the report.

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