Commercial tourism in Tasmania’s wilderness threatens the attraction it exploits

To the Editor — The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) is a vast area — 1.5 million hectares — with diverse geology, landforms and vegetation. It is listed under the World Heritage Convention owing to the outstanding value of its natural and cultural features, and has been described by the World Heritage Committee as one of the “last remaining temperate wilderness areas in the world”1 (Fig. 1). However, that status has served to attract increasing numbers of high-end ‘eco-tourists’, placing the area under development pressure.