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Tasmanian forest to be opened for tourism: media

Xinhua, January 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

A 1.5-million-hectare world heritage listed forest in Tasmania, Australia, will be opened to tourism activities and selective logging, local media reported on Thursday.

The Wilderness World Heritage Area, which covers a fifth of the state and is considered the world's last stretches of temperate wilderness, will soon be opened to tourism accommodation, aircraft access and possibly cruise ship stays, The Australian newspaper reported.

The ban on the logging of special species timbers will also be lifted as the Liberal Party opens the area to economic development.

Gone too will be the pledge to keep the vast ecosystem "in as good or better condition than at present", with the area rezoned from "wilderness" to "remote recreation". That will also force a name change.

The Wilderness World Heritage Area was first inscribed on the world heritage list in 1982.

It was the fifth Australian site to be listed after the Great Barrier Reef a year earlier. Endi