World-Heritage of Tasmanian forests considered as UNESCO begins meeting

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has convened its annual meeting in Qatar, where a decision will be made on the Australian government's application have 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forests delisted.

Tasmanians are ramping up their campaign to stop the Australian Government from removing the World Heritage status from an area of Tasmania's forests (AAP)

 

• Thousands protest bid to reduce World Heritage-listed areas of Tasmanian forests

The committee is expected to hand down its decision at the end of the week.

If the government's application is successful, it would be a first time a developed country had reversed a heritage listing on the basis of economic grounds.

The government said the area it wants delisted has already been logged before.

Opponents said only 8.6 per cent of it has been touched, with the remainder pristine old-growth rainforest.