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Articles on Wilderness

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Australia’s Purnululu National Park is a World Heritage wilderness, but many other pristine places lack similar protection. AAP Image/Tourism Australia

Earth’s wildernesses are disappearing, and not enough of them are World Heritage-listed

Wilderness areas are vitally important, yet are largely overlooked by the United Nations’ list of natural World Heritage. This week’s meeting in Poland is a chance to redress that balance.
The Simien mountains in Ethiopia are one of the world’s most threatened natural heritage sites. Simien mountains image from www.shutterstock.com

More than half the world’s most important natural sites are under threat: it’s time to protect them

You’d hope we wouldn’t flatten the pyramids to build a highway. But that’s exactly what’s happening to the world’s natural heritage sites.
Fires in 1997 in Indonesia released over a billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Indonesia’s forests burned again in 2015. AAP

The world’s carbon stores are going up in smoke with vanishing wilderness

The world has lost 10% of its wilderness areas in the past 20 years and, with it, vast stores of carbon.
Residents near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota and many others are concerned of the impact of mining in its headwaters. atbaker/flickr

Can nature advocates save threatened Boundary Waters wilderness – again?

Almost 100 years ago, the foundations to preserve the Boundary Waters in Minnesota for recreation were put in place. Now residents are debating whether to allow a mine in its headwaters.
Fragments of woodland surrounded by cleared land in south west Australia. Google Earth

Unique Australian wildlife risks vanishing as ecosystems suffer death by a thousand cuts

Australia may have reputation for vast areas of wilderness, but in reality the continent’s ecosystems have been chopped and diced. Now we need to protect what’s left.
The potential rezoning of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area for tourism development begs the question: just what is wilderness, and what is it good for? The Wilderness Society/AAP

Explainer: wilderness, and why it matters

The Tasmanian government this month released a draft of the revised management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which proposes rezoning certain areas from “wilderness zones” to “remote…
Martha Koowarta, her late husband John and her Wik people have had to fight since the 1970s for their land rights in north Queensland to be properly recognised. AAP Image/David Sproule

Fighting for their country: inside the battle for Cape York

This week’s Federal Court ruling that the Wild Rivers declarations introduced by the former Queensland Labor Government were rushed and invalid was the long-awaited result many Cape York Indigenous groups…
Clear-felling and burning is not the future for Tasmania’s forests, no matter what happens with a looming World Heritage wilderness decision. Ta Ann Truths/Flickr

Tasmanian forestry plans a revival beyond World Heritage

The Tasmanian forestry industry is already thinking beyond the federal and state governments’ plans to abolish the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement, which include trying to remove 74,000 hectares of forest…

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