Special report from the UNESCO World Heritage Council meeting in Doha

Update from Doha on the Tasmanian World Heritage forest issue

The Tasmanian World Heritage forest issue is up for discussion either later tomorrow (Friday) or on Saturday. We, the Australian Wilderness advocates, are]hoping that the Australian government’s attempt to log the Tasmanian World Heritage forests will be met with opposition from the World Heritage committee

As a pre-cursor to the Tasmanian forest issue (but certainly not less important), the issue of the Great Barrier Reef “In Danger” was discussed yesterday. Australia received a harsh rebuke from the committee for its management of the World Heritage area, including Australia’s plans [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”] to build a massive coal port which will require dredging and dumping inside the park.[/highlight] Australia tried to introduce a series of changes to the draft decision but was strongly rebuked. Here is some follow up media.

• Proposed dumping of construction material in the great barrier reef
• Unesco smacks down Australia over its treatment of the Great Barrier Reef
• Australia on notice over Great Barrier Reefs environmental damage

I will obviously give you an update as soon as the decision on Tasmania has been made.

Luke from Doha