A Sign of the Times? Save the Tarkine Wilderness!
Thursday 14th April, 2011
2011 has been declared International Year of Forests by the United Nations. It is a year to celebrate forests and reinforce the fact that they are vital to the survival and well being of the planet and of humans. All 7 billion of us.
Image courtesy of Tarkine National Coalition
It is also the opportunity for governments and peoples all around the globe to make a stand for forests and to create a new vision for their safety and preservation, particuarly old growth forests. Canada has the largest boreal forest left on Earth - the world’s largest original and intact forest. This year they are celebrating an alliance between peoples working together to preserve this wilderness area that is so vital to life on Earth. An alliance that recognises the need to protect very large areas of forest which are now almost non existent, and the importance of doing this in concert with the aboriginal peoples. Exploitation
In direct contrast to this the Australian government have axed the Tarkene Wilderness from it’s protection. This was done with full knowledge of the Tarken’s environmental and cultural value. This action effectively buries the heritage features of the Tarkene rendering them invisible in the federal environmental approval process. Their values do not have to be considered when assessing and approving projects related to that area, regardless of their significance. In fact, almost immediately that the minister for the environment, Tony Burke, allowed the Tarkene’s protection to lapse, permission was given to a British mining company to begin exploratory drilling - in one of Australias prime wilderness areas.
Late last year, just before the Tarkene lost its protection, the Australian Heritage Council confirmed that the Tarkine was of such exceptional value that it satisfied the criteria for inclusion on the National Heritage List, recommending that almost 450,000 hectares of the area be permanently listed.
It is one of Australia's places of outstanding natural heritage.
Can you believe it is Tasmania's largest unprotected wilderness area? Now at least three new mining proposals are threatening the area.
Wild, fierce & diverse
With less than 17% of wilderness left on the planet it is unbelievable that we can't protect this amazing corner. Wild, fierce, diverse; it is an area of natural beauty and wonder and should be protected as such. It is the largest, most intact cool temperate rainforest not only in Australia but in the southern heisphere and contains rare and threatened biodiversity and Aboriginal archaeological sites of significance.
Environment Australia's National Wilderness Inventory measures wilderness quality on a scale from 0 (no wilderness) to 20 (pure wilderness), based on remoteness from settlement and access, and apparent and biophysical naturalness. While the Tarkine contains all gradings, the highest grade, with values from 14 - 20 makes up the majority of the Tarkine region. An area of incredible biodiversity the Tarkine is home to 60 rare and endangered species as well as containing geological and geomorpholgical features that are of world significance.
It’s size is also significant. It is a large intact area and the issue with small ‘token’ areas, is that they don’t afford adequate protection and proper environment. For example, layers of forest giving way to rainforest, which offer adequate protection from the effects of sunlight and wind.
The Tarkine is a remnant of the ancient continent of Gondawana and satisfies the entire cultural and natural heritage criterion for inclusion on the World Heritage list. Groups that support World Heritage listing for the Tarkine include;
IUCN, The Wilderness Society, Australian Conservation Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Launceston Environment Centre and Tarkine National Coalition. (ACF)
The current proposed Tarkine World Heritage area is 377,000 hectares and of this 177,000 hectares is rainforest. A fraction over 90% of all rainforest within the Tarkine is classified as old growth. Temperate rainforest is the rarest of rainforests and more highly threatened than tropical and subtropical rainforests.
On a global scale, the Tarkine contains one of the world's most significant
remaining tracts of temperate rainforest that is second only in size to those in western Canada. (ACF )
Image courtesy of Tarkine National Coalition
One of the world's great archaeological regions
The Australian Heritage Commission describes the Tarkine as "one of the world's great archaeological regions" due to the number and significance of these aboriginal sites, many of which pre-date the pyramids. The word 'Tarkine' comes from one of a number of bands of Aboriginals that lived in the North-West Region. The 'Tarkiners' were a group who were based at Sandy Cape on the Tarkine Coast.
The Tarkene is one of Australias surviving treasures containing globally significant magnesite cave systems, Tassmania’s greatest density of wild rivers and the two grand rivers - the Arthur River ( the only complete river system in Tasmania that has no dam) and the Pieman River, Australias largest tract of temperate rainforest and a spectacularly wild coastline battered by the winds of the roaring 40s. Here is, perhaps, the purest air in the world. The Norfolk Range distinctively rises above the coastal plateau to over 700m and the Tarkene also contains a belt of sub-alpine rainforest.
Time is now crucial for the Tarkine. This magnificent wilderness is now under direct threat. There are at least three large mining projects planned for the area – a magnesite mine, an iron ore mine and a tin mine. If the Tarkine is not put back on the National Heritage List, the minister will have to pretend its heritage values do not exist when assessing and approving these projects.
And why is this happening? Is it a delaying tactic to allow the government to pass all relevant projects through the assessment and approval process before the Tarkine can be relisted or to draw the lines for the National Heritage area in a way that suits the miners. Perhaps both...
How much longer will the Australian government ignore the intrinsic link between healthy forests and human well being and prosperity?
Tarkine movie launched 16/3/2010:
Director Brent Melton's Tarkine: Saving the Last of Gondwana has been released today as a free webcast video. Brent has interviewed numerous players in the Tarkine stuggle, to explore the need for a Tarkine National Park. Be one of the first to see this outstanding film.
View 56k version for dial up andslower broadband connections
View high definition broadband verion for fast broadband connections
References:
But they are also being cut down. What was once a playground of imagination is now a college and two fast food chains.
Draven Ames
12 May 2011
I hope this rain forest is saved. I had no idea it was 17%... I thought it was higher than that. Wow. This article makes it seem really dire. Here in Washington and Oregon, there are trees all over the place.