Heritage forests face worst bushfire crisis in decades

Fires burning across Tasmania are producing the worst crisis the world heritage forests there have faced in decades, says a long-term conservationist from the area.

Bushfires in Tasmania's heritage
forests worst crisis in decades.

Geoff Law, formerly a conservationist at the Wilderness Society, told Guardian Australia: “In my opinion – and I’ve been working on these issues since 1981 – it’s the gravest crisis the world heritage area has faced in that time.”

“As we speak there are areas burning inside the world heritage area, on the central plateau, where there are ancient species of native pine, which are very slow-growing and up to 1,000 years old,” Law said. “Some of those are being killed as we speak.”

For many Australian forests, fire was a natural part of the ecology. But that was not the case for all of the areas now being threatened in Tasmania, Law said.

Read The Guardian story - “Tasmanian bushfires 'worst crisis in decades' for world heritage forests.”