Conservation History and Maps
This page is under construction…
Conservation groups’ national park proposal 2021:
Conservation groups including Friends of the Great Western Tiers kooparoona niara, the Wilderness Society and the Tasmanian National Parks Association have put forward an updated plan for a kooparoona niara (Great Western Tiers) National Park and extended Mole Creek Karst National Park. This proposal is part of a submission regarding the status of designated Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) in the World Heritage area. This process is further described below. The submission can be viewed here:
A detailed map showing the areas proposed for national park by conservation groups (Friends of Great Western Tiers kooparoona niara, the Wilderness Society and Tasmanian National Parks Association ) in 2021 can be viewed here:
Detailed map of the two national parks proposed by conservationists in 2021
The conservation groups’ proposal encompasses all the World Heritage listed forested escarpment and adjoining plateau, as well as important areas to the east which are not in World Heritage. The Mole Creek Karst National Park already exists in fragmented form. The conservation groups’ proposal extends this existing national park as well as calling on the remaining areas of the escarpment and adjoining plateau to be given National Park status (kooparoona niara Great Western Tiers National Park). Much of the area is classified by the State Government as Conservation Area, a lesser category which allows resource extraction, contrary to the requirements of World Heritage. Given that most of the proposed area is already World Heritage and thus not available for resource extraction, there should be no impediments to revising the tenure to national park.
Further, the areas shown on the map in blue with crosshatching were up to very recently classified as Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) with World Heritage status. These areas were given FPPF status after their World Heritage listing. FPPF is not a statutory land classification and the body administering World Heritage, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recommended that these areas be given national park status. The Tasmania State government has made them Conservation Areas, a lesser status which allows resource extraction. In a recent public consultation process, 97% of submissions called for these areas to be made national park. The public submission process was a farce, with the Tasmanian government ignoring the public submissions.