The UNESCO World Heritage Committee yesterday unanimously rejected a controversial proposal by the Australian government to strip 74,000 hectares of temperate rainforest from a World Heritage Site in Tasmania. In an embarrassing setback for the Australia government, it took the committee less than ten minutes to unanimously reject the proposal.

 

The 74,000 hectares in question were a part of a so-called "peace deal" between environmentalists and loggers in Tasmania, which added 170,000 hectares to an existing World Heritage site. The government contended that much of the forest was degraded, yet experts disagreed. In fact, the IUCN found that 85 percent of the 74,000 hectares was natural forest and nearly half of the whole was old-growth forest. The IUCN recommended that the committee reject the proposal.

 

The former leader of Australia Green party, Bob Brown, blasted the current government for its attempt to shrink the World Heritage Site.

 

Environmentalists and conservationists have decried a number of proposals put forward by the Abbott government, including a controversial shark cull, an attempt to kill the country's carbon tax, a moratorium on new protected areas, and dumping coal dredge in the Great Barrier Reef.