Congratulations Professor Anya Reading!
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area has ecosystems and cultural landscapes that have been created and/or influenced by the interactions between the physical environment, the biological environment, fire regimes and people. Lightning is the dominant cause of fire in the 2010s, yet was rarely recorded as a cause of fire before 1980, when arsonists caused most fires. The main potential impact of this change in primary cause of fire incidence on the values of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is the loss of ecosystems dominated by highly fire-sensitive palaeoendemics, organosols and Aboriginal cultural landscapes. At the same time as these values are threatened, a lack of burning threatens some fire-dependent vegetation types. We suggest an increase in planned burning of fire-tolerant and fire-requiring vegetation, maintenance of ignition suppression, an improvement in rapid response capability and an improvement in rapid detection of lightning fires is required in order to maintain many world heritage values.
Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, lightning fire, management, Tasmania
Published Papers
The Royal Society of Tasmania acknowledges, with deep respect, the traditional owners of this land, and the ongoing custodianship of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The Society pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples have survived severe and unjust impacts resulting from invasion and dispossession of their Country. As an institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, the Royal Society of Tasmania recognises Aboriginal cultural knowledge and practices and seeks to respect and honour these traditions and the deep understanding they represent.
On 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania offered a formal Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
