UNESCO urges pause on private development in Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

UNESCO has handed down a decision on the state government’s push for tourism developments in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

UNESCO has ratified a decision urging the state government to put a pause on tourism developments in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which environmentalists say amounts to a repudiation of the Liberals’ controversial expression of interest process.

The decision was adopted at a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee overnight on Friday, after the Tasmanian and Commonwealth governments unsuccessfully attempted to amend some of its wording.

MORE:

UNESCO finds World Heritage Area tourism plan lacking

Government rejects UNESCO’s criticism of state’s tourism master plan

New tourism plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

The decision regarding the TWWHA requests that the World Heritage Committee and its advisory bodies review the state government’s tourism master plan for the area to ensure it accords with the 2016 management plan and considers the expression of interest process for tourism development projects and how it might be affected by the master plan.

It also calls for the Gutwein government to avoid any development within the TWWHA “before the detailed plan for a comprehensive cultural assessment is implemented”.

A spokesman for federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the draft decision had not been opened for discussion by any other committee member during Friday’s meeting. It was adopted without alteration.

The TWWHA encompasses about 1.5 million hectares and covers just over 20 per cent of the state’s land mass. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982.

The government’s EOI program for developments within national parks has included a helicopter-serviced project on Halls Island in Lake Malbena.

The “horse paddock” near Lake Malbena and Halls Island in the Walls of Jerusalem Nauional Park.

Wilderness Society Tasmania campaign director Tom Allen said he was “stoked” the original decision had been ratified.

“The Tasmanian and Commonwealth governments tried and failed to de-fang this strongly worded decision, which we’ve been lobbying hard behind the scenes to keep unchanged,” he said.

“We expect the state government to accordingly halt all further development in the TWWHA so that it can undertake the six-years-late Aboriginal cultural heritage survey by the new deadline of February 2022.”

Wilderness Society Tasmania campaign director Tom Allen. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Acting Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said the Liberals’ “push to privatise wilderness” had been “exposed on the international stage”.

“Tasmanians from across the island and from all walks of life have been sickened by the Liberals’ unwavering agenda to ruin the TWWHA’s undeveloped ancient Gondwanan landscape,” she said.

“Although they have ignored the views of Tasmanians, the Gutwein government can’t ignore UNESCO’s decision.”

A Tasmanian government spokeswoman said the government would work with the Commonwealth to “undertake an assessment of the impact of the World Heritage Committee’s decision and to clarify its scope and implications”.

“The Tasmanian government is well advanced in the drafting of a report into the state of conservation for the TWWHA and routinely provides reports to the (Commonwealth) on matters as requested,” she said.

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania boss Luke Martin previously described UNESCO’s position as “perplexing … given they approved the TWWHA Management Plan five years ago with none of these conditions attached”.