Tourism and World Heritage in the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserve, Australia

Abstract

The Central Eastern Rainforest Reserve Australia (CERRA) World Heritage Area comprises 8 groups of forest reserves scattered between Lamington National Park in southeast Queensland and Barrington Tops in central New South Wales. Most of the areas between these reserves have either been cleared for farming, or are State forests subject to logging. These forest reserves form a remnant of a once-continuous forest cover throughout the area. The future tenure and use of areas outside the reserves, many of which are equally valuable in terms of their natural heritage, is currently under debate as part of the so-called Comprehensive Regional Assessment process for Australian's forests nationally. This process grew from sharp controversy between the logging industry and conservation groups over the use of remaining forest areas. During this process, it has become very clear that conservation and logging are not the only two relevant land uses. Tourism is a third and at least equally important sector, and one which is continuing to grow in economic scale, geographic extent, and political visibility. This has been reflected in the recently-concluded South-East Queensland Forests Agreement (Keto and Scott 1999: 1, Schneiders 1999: 1).