North Queensland’s Tropical Rainforests: The World Heritage Controversy

Abstract

When the state owned tropical rainforests of North Queensland, in northeastern Australia, received World Heritage listing from UNESCO in 1988, it largely put an end to the fighting over the future of these forests. With the imposition of World Heritage, logging in state owned rainforests was halted. Queensland still argues that it was managing the forests for a sustainable harvest, and that as these were state owned forests, the Federal government had no right to nominate the forests for World Heritage. This paper examines: what World Heritage means; the history of the conflict; the motivations of the various parties involved; the sustainability of the operations in these forests; and what the results of World Heritage have been in the years since 1988. The conclusion it draws from all this is that the partial solution which has been achieved has not addressed all of the pressures being placed upon these forests. Even those areas which are protected are faced with an uncertain future as a result of the ongoing conflict which surrounds their protected status. The confrontational manner in which individuals on both sides of the issue approached the matter has restricted the range of options available for resolving it. Because rainforests are a small part of Australia’s forest estate, and the nation itself is a rich, developed country, it can afford this kind of solution, but it is unlikely that such an approach will prove a viable form of conservation elsewhere in the tropics. Foresters would do well to learn from this example and heed Squire’s (1993) warning, “Forestry must take the lead in initiating public involvement and cooperation in planning if it is to survive as the profession with the primary responsibility for balancing sustained wood production, and ecosystem conservation in native forests.”