Australian Fire Season Hitting Gondwana Rain Forests, Historically Too Wet To Burn (Until Now)
The Unesco world heritage centre has expressed concern about bushfire damage to the Gondwana rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and asked the Australian government whether it is affecting their world heritage values.
In a statement on its website, the centre said members of the media and civil society had asked about the bushfires affecting the areas inscribed on the world heritage list as the Gondwana rainforests of Australia. The forests are considered a living link to the vegetation that covered the southern supercontinent Gondwana before it broke up about 180m years ago.
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Scientists say the bushfires this spring have been unprecedented, in part because they have destroyed areas that have historically been too wet to burn. The affected area includes parts of the major remaining rainforest areas in south-east Queensland and north-east NSW, which are listed as one world heritage site.
The world heritage area includes the largest areas of subtropical rainforest on the planet, some warm temperate rainforest and nearly all the worlds Antarctic beech cool temperate rainforest. It consists of about 40 separate reserves, spread between Newcastle and Brisbane, and surrounded by fire-prone eucalypt forest and farms. The centre says the rainforests are outstanding examples of major stages of the Earths evolutionary history, ongoing geological and biological processes, and exceptional biological diversity.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/28/unesco-expresses-concern-over-bushfire-damage-to-australias-gondwana-era-rainforests