Federal Government Requests to Delist Part of Tasmania's World Heritage Area
Wednesday 26 February 2014 @ 11.59 a.m. | Legal Research | Trade & Commerce
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has defended the Federal Government's application to delist a section of Tasmania's World Heritage Area.
The Government has asked the World Heritage Committee to delist about 74,000 hectares of 170,000 which was added under Tasmania's historic forest peace deal. The 170,000 hectares including areas of the Southern Forests, the Styx and the Florentine were given protection last year as part of the forest peace deal, known as the Tasmanian Forests Agreement, which was signed in late 2012. It was an attempt to end decades of division and conflict between loggers and environmentalists that crippled the industry.
Peter Hitchcock, a prominent world heritage consultant was a key advisor on the original Tasmanian World Heritage nomination in 1989, is questioning the Government’s claim that some of it is not worth protecting.
According to Mr Hitchcock, 90 per cent of the land is outstanding eucalyptus forest that had never been logged:
"Some of it is some of the most outstanding forests in the country, if not in the planet ... So the great majority of the area that is being proposed to be removed from the World Heritage Area is in fact unlogged forest, and much of it with important conservation values."
Forest Agreement Good for Business
Under the agreement, in return for protecting half-a-million hectares of forest, some green groups agreed to end all protests and support the forestry industry.
Neville Smith Timbers a timber flooring maker, one of the major beneficiaries of the deal, is now struggling to keep up with demand, with orders twice that of production levels, a complete turnaround from business prior to the signing of the deal.
Executive chairman James Neville Smith said:
"The Tasmanian Forestry Agreement really has allowed us to re-think what we're doing within our businesses and engender confidence with our customers...I'm an eternal optimist and have no doubt that where we're heading there's a bright future."
That positive outlook is shared by the Malaysian-owned veneer manufacturer Ta Ann, one of the state's biggest native forest producers:
“The Tasmanian Forestry Agreement really has allowed us to re-think what we're doing within our businesses and engender confidence with our customers. Without the peace deal the company would have left Tasmania because it was losing customers as a result of pressure exerted by environmentalists... I don't think we'd be operating the business, frankly...The Forest Agreement provided the basis on which we could go back in the market, hold the small amount of market that was still there for us. It's better to have 60 per cent of a volume that you can sell product in market than to have a 100 per cent and not be able to sell that product."
Risk to the Agreement
The Greens leader Nick McKim says if the application to delist is successful it would put this historic agreement between environmentalists and the Tasmanian timber industry at risk.
Ta Ann’s Executive director has made it clear that the company does not want wood from the contentious forests because the company's customers only want wood from areas endorsed by the peace deal.
"I'd just be urging all those policymakers who are thinking about the future of the industry to concentrate on what the customers are telling us in the markets so that we set Tasmania up for a future that meets customers needs and is not about the politics of forests."
The state Liberal's forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein says the market will decide who will want to take the timber.
The World Heritage Committee is expected to announce its decision in June.
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