Submission
On 13 January 2016 a series of dry lightning strikes ignited bushfires which burned a substantial area within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. These fires provide confirmation of the obvious, namely that climate change in conjunction with a severe El Niño event has fundamentally changed the risk of wildfire in Tasmania, but they also remind us that this poses very real risk to one of the most important values of the TWWHA.
The emergency response to such fires needs to better prioritise the protection of Tasmania’s natural values including, particularly, the most important locations within the TWWHA.
Fire-killed Pencil pines near Lake Mackenzie, 2016. Photo: Rob Blakers
The Tasmanian National Parks Association offers an independent voice for Tasmania’s national parks and reserves, to ensure they are managed for the conservation of the values for which they were proclaimed.