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Australia is a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, securing a seat from 2017 to 2021. The Committee consists of 21 members, elected every two years from the 193 countries that are a party to the World Heritage Convention.
The Committee makes decisions on World Heritage property nominations and state of conservation matters worldwide. It plays a vital role in the protection and celebration of natural and cultural sites around the world that hold Outstanding Universal Value. Some sites on the World Heritage List include the Great Wall of China, the Lascaux Caves of France, Machu Pichu, the Galapagos Islands, the Pyramids of Giza and the Tropical Rainforests of Borneo.
Australia has 19 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, including ico nic sites such as Sydney Opera House, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Kakadu, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, our mammal fossil sites at Riversleigh and Naracoorte, and the Great Barrier Reef – places that are vital to the cultural, social and economic fabric of our nation. Australia has more natural World Heritage sites than any other country. [my yellow highlighting]
Australia was a founding member of the World Heritage Convention and was last on the World Heritage Committee from 2007-2011. During this Committee term Australia led the development of the Convention’s Strategic Action Plan.
Our membership of the Committee allows us to share our extensive experience in managing our natural and cultural heritage, including by assisting other countries to prepare World Heritage nominations and build their capacity to manage sites.
During our 2017 – 2021 term, Australia will work to strengthen the operation of the Committee, placing emphasis on the effective management of existing properties, and encouraging greater geographic balance in the list and more focus on listing natural places of Outstanding Universal Value.......
NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Greater Blue Mountains Area, 3 September 2019:
The Greater Blue Mountains Area was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000 in recognition of its significant natural values. It possesses unique plants and animals that relate an extraordinary story of the evolution of Australia's distinctive eucalypt vegetation and its associated communities.....
The Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Advisory Committee advises on matters relating to the protection, conservation, presentation and management of the Greater Blue Mountains Area, helping to fulfil Australia’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service manages the 8 reserves that make up the Greater Blue Mountains Area"
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), World Heritage Council, Greater Blue Mountains Area, Description, excerpts:
Greater Blue Mountains Area
The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million ha of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forest. The site, comprised of eight protected areas, is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent. Ninety-one eucalypt taxa occur within the Greater Blue Mountains Area which is also outstanding for its exceptional expression of the structural and ecological diversity of the eucalypts associated with its wide range of habitats. The site provides significant representation of Australia's biodiversity with ten percent of the vascular flora as well as significant numbers of rare or threatened species, including endemic and evolutionary relict species, such as the Wollemi pine, which have persisted in highly-restricted microsites….
Protection and Management Requirements
The GBMA is protected and managed under legislation of both the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales. All World Heritage properties in Australia are ‘matters of national environmental significance’ protected and managed under national legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This Act is the statutory instrument for implementing Australia’s obligations under a number of multilateral environmental agreements including the World Heritage Convention. By law, any action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the World Heritage values of a World Heritage property must be referred to the responsible Minister for consideration. Substantial penalties apply for taking such an action without approval. Once a heritage place is listed, the Act provides for the preparation of management plans which set out the significant heritage aspects of the place and how the values of the site will be managed. [my yellow highlighting]
Importantly, this Act also aims to protect matters of national environmental significance, such as World Heritage properties, from impacts even if they originate outside the property or if the values of the property are mobile (as in fauna). It thus forms an additional layer of protection designed to protect values of World Heritage properties from external impacts. In 2007, the GBMA was added to the National Heritage List, in recognition of its national heritage significance under the Act.
A single State government agency, the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, manages the area. All the reserves that comprise the GBMA are subject to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and the Wilderness Act 1987. Other relevant legislation includes the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, the Sydney Water Catchment Management Act 1998 and the Heritage Act 1977.
At the time of nomination statutory management plans for the constituent reserves of the GBMA were in place or in preparation, and these are reviewed every 7-10 years. Currently all management plans have been gazetted, and those for three component reserves (Wollemi, Blue Mountains, and Kanangra-Boyd National Parks, which constitute 80% of the property) are under revision for greater emphasis on the protection of identified values. An over-arching Strategic Plan for the property provides a framework for its integrated management, protection, interpretation and monitoring. ....
The Guardian, 8 March 2019:
The New South Wales government has been accused of not following due process when it passed legislation to allow flooding in the heritage-listed Blue Mountains.
The Greater Blue Mountains area is already recognised globally for its environmental significance but now some sections are being assessed by the federal government for inclusion on the national heritage list for Aboriginal cultural values.
A Unesco advisory body has warned NSW legislation passed in 2018, as part of the Coalition’s plan to raise Warragamba Dam wall by 14m, could endanger the area’s cultural values.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites wrote to the Unesco world heritage centre in February 2019 arguing the legislation shouldn’t have been proposed before the commonwealth’s cultural values assessment was finalised.
“It is inappropriate ... for the NSW parliament to be enabling legislation that would impact upon established world or national heritage values or potential national heritage values,” the letter, seen by AAP, states.
The ICOMOS Australia president, Ian Travers, said it would be unacceptable for the Blue Mountains to be flooded before the presumed cultural values of the area were fully known.
“If the areas being assessed are inundated in the interim, it’s not acceptable,” he said.
“The correct process hasn’t been followed. They’re enabling legislation, which is directly contrary to what should be happening.”
Thousands of cultural sites were flooded when Warragamba Dam was built in the 1960s, and Aboriginal elders are concerned the plan to raise the wall will destroy those that are left.
“Traditional owners feel very strongly that their cultural heritage, that’s already been decimated, is about to eradicated,” Travers said.
Gundungurra elder Sharyn Halls urged the heritage centre to investigate the threat to thousands of cultural areas including burial sites, waterholes and artefacts.....
UNESCO, 43rd Session of World Heritage Committee, July 2019:
Greater Blue Mountains Area (Australia) (N 917)
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B.Add
3. Notes with concern that the State Party recognizes that the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall is expected to increase the frequency and extent of temporary inundation of the property upstream of the dam;
4. Considers that the inundation of areas within the property resulting from the raising of the dam wall are likely to have an impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, recalls Decision 40 COM 7, in which it considered that the construction of dams with large reservoirs within the boundaries of World Heritage properties is incompatible with their World Heritage status, and urged States Parties to “ensure that the impacts from dams that could affect properties located upstream or downstream within the same river basin are rigorously assessed in order to avoid impacts on the OUV”, and requests the State Party to ensure, in line with its commitment, that the current process to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposal fully assesses all potential impacts on the OUV of the property and its other values, including Aboriginal cultural heritage, and to submit a copy of the EIS to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN, prior to taking any final decisions regarding the project;
5. Also notes with concern that several mining projects exist in the vicinity of or adjacent to the property, and that some mining activities have resulted in impacts on the property, as evidenced by the incident at the Clarence Colliery, and also requests the State Party to undertake an assessment of potential cumulative impacts of all existing and planned mining projects in the vicinity of the property through a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) or a similar mechanism;
7. Notes the information provided by the State Party regarding the Western Sydney Airport proposal and further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre a copy of the EIS for the anticipated airspace and flight path operations, once available, for review by IUCN;
8. Welcomes the development of a Strategic Management Framework for the property as a new integrated management instrument and requests furthermore the State Party to ensure that potential threats to the property from activities outside its boundaries, particularly mining, are fully considered in the development of this management framework and that the EIS required are carried out in conformity with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment, with a specific section focusing on the potential impact of the project(s) on the property’s OUV;
9. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2020, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 45th session in 2021.
NOW
The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 2021:
The Berejiklian government has been asked by UNESCO to submit the environmental impact study on its plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall for review before final approval out of concern about the damage the project will have on wildlife and Indigenous culture in the World Heritage area.
The request, made overnight by a committee of the UN body, fell short of matching a separate recommendation that another World Heritage-listed region in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, be assessed as “in danger” because of climate change.
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The Berejiklian government’s plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall has been discussed at a UNESCO World Heritage meeting overnight. CREDIT:JAMES BRICKWOOD
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Still, the government has been put on notice that the $1 billion-plus plan to lift the height of the dam wall by at least 14 metres will be closely watched by the World Heritage Committee because of the expected damage caused by even temporary inundation of parts of the Greater Blue Mountains.
In its statement, the committee repeated its request that the “State Party” ensures the environmental impact study “assesses all potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Values of the property and its other values, including Aboriginal cultural heritage”.
The request also includes the government “thoroughly” assesses how raising the wall would exacerbate bushfire impacts and affect the longer-term recovery of “key species and habitats” burnt during the 2019-20 season…..
Read the full article here.
It should be noted that the "State Party" is the Commonwealth of Australia and it is the Australian Government which receives and replies to all requests and correspondence from UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee.
It was the Australian Government which assured UNESCO & the World Heritage Committee in April 2019 that it "reaffirms Australia's commitment to protecting the Outstanding Universal Value of this globally significant area".
So it is somewhat puzzling that a Nine Entertainment Co (Chair - former Australian Treasurer & Liberal MP for Higgins Peter Costello) masthead The Sydney Morning Herald runs an article which redirects primary responsibility onto the New South Wales Government rather than noting it is the Morrison Government which is being held to account by UNESCO and it will be the Morrison Government responsible for any and all environmental, biodiversity and cultural losses in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area if section/s of this area is flooded.
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