Why has the government chosen to announce some tinkering with the Expressions of Interest for Tourism Opportunities in National Parks (EOI) process while stalling on the reforms to the process that really matters, the Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA)?
The Tasmanian National Parks Association has called on the Tasmanian Government to extend Tasman National Park near Crescent Bay, close to Port Arthur, by acquiring a property recently offered for sale.
In this issue, we describe the history of Tasmania’s national park system, and note the centenary of one of Tasmania’s most famous parks. It is apparent that tourism development issues are not new, and disturbing current trends are noted. But there are also encouraging results from a recent national poll.
As we mark the centenary of one of our most significant natural wonders this week, it’s timely to reflect on what one of our most important eco-tourism pioneers envisioned for 'The Reserve'.
The Tasmanian National Parks Association is calling for the area around Cradle Mountain to be protected from over-development including an intrusive cable car, a century after the area was reserved on 16 May 1922 to protect its scenery.
The successful 1998 plan describing management of the Lower Gordon River is being reviewed in the context of the new TWWHA Tourism Master Plan, but it is disappointing the scope of new Draft Plan is limited to recreation and tourism use, rather than broader issues that affect the river.
It is time to rethink Tasmania’s exploitation of our national parks as a resource for growing the tourism industry. We need to move beyond the simplistic ‘unlocking’ approach and develop a more nuanced policy that acknowledges and protects the values that attract visitors to Tasmania’s parks in the first place. What will it take to make the state government realise that its ‘unlocking’ policy is compromising the concept of a national park?
New national polling commissioned by the National Parks Australia Council, a coalition of state-based conservation groups, confirms that the vast majority of Australians do not want to see prime protected areas like National Parks compromised by commercial or large-scale development.
Environment groups today called for the Tasmanian Government to approach with caution any attempts by the Kentish Rifle Club to obtain funding for their proposed rifle range on Maggs Mountain, near national park access routes. Hearing rifle shots detracts from characteristics of remoteness and isolation and an unmodified natural setting.
A study into a new overnight walk in the Tyndall Range claims the proposal is feasible, and the government has doubled the funding already committed to take it to $40 million. But the proposed Next Iconic Walk, and in particular its location and selection process, has been criticised by a range of eNGOs, and many aspects of the Feasibility Study reinforce these earlier concerns.
