Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become?
Kgari-Fraser Island, the world's largest barrier sand island, is at the crossroads of World Heritage status, due to destructive environmental use in concert with climate change. Will Kgari-Fraser Island exemplify innovative, adaptive management or become just another degraded recreational facil...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Environment Institute of Australia
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32991 |
| _version_ | 1848753820946923520 |
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| author | Wardell-Johnson, Grant Schoeman, D. Schlacher, T. Wardell-Johnson, Angela Weston, M. Shimizu, Y. Conroy, G. |
| author_facet | Wardell-Johnson, Grant Schoeman, D. Schlacher, T. Wardell-Johnson, Angela Weston, M. Shimizu, Y. Conroy, G. |
| author_sort | Wardell-Johnson, Grant |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Kgari-Fraser Island, the world's largest barrier sand island, is at the crossroads of World Heritage status, due to destructive environmental use in concert with climate change. Will Kgari-Fraser Island exemplify innovative, adaptive management or become just another degraded recreational facility? We synthesize the likely impact of human pressures and predicted consequences on the values of this island. World-renown natural beauty and ongoing biological and geological processes in coastal, wetland, heathland and rainforest environments, all contribute to its World Heritage status. The impact of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors is increasing on the island's biodiversity, cultural connections, ecological functions and environmental values. Maintaining World Heritage values will necessitate the re-framing of values to integrate socioeconomic factors in management and reduce extractive forms of tourism. Environmentally sound, systematic conservation planning that achieves social equity is urgently needed to rectify historical mistakes and update current management practices. Characterizing and sustaining biological refugia will be important to retain biodiversity in areas that are less visited. The development of a coherent approach to interpretation concerning history, access and values is required to encourage a more sympathetic use of this World Heritage environment. Alternatively, ongoing attrition of the islands values by increased levels of destructive use is inevitable. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:30:36Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-32991 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:30:36Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Environment Institute of Australia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-329912017-09-13T15:28:01Z Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? Wardell-Johnson, Grant Schoeman, D. Schlacher, T. Wardell-Johnson, Angela Weston, M. Shimizu, Y. Conroy, G. Kgari-Fraser Island, the world's largest barrier sand island, is at the crossroads of World Heritage status, due to destructive environmental use in concert with climate change. Will Kgari-Fraser Island exemplify innovative, adaptive management or become just another degraded recreational facility? We synthesize the likely impact of human pressures and predicted consequences on the values of this island. World-renown natural beauty and ongoing biological and geological processes in coastal, wetland, heathland and rainforest environments, all contribute to its World Heritage status. The impact of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors is increasing on the island's biodiversity, cultural connections, ecological functions and environmental values. Maintaining World Heritage values will necessitate the re-framing of values to integrate socioeconomic factors in management and reduce extractive forms of tourism. Environmentally sound, systematic conservation planning that achieves social equity is urgently needed to rectify historical mistakes and update current management practices. Characterizing and sustaining biological refugia will be important to retain biodiversity in areas that are less visited. The development of a coherent approach to interpretation concerning history, access and values is required to encourage a more sympathetic use of this World Heritage environment. Alternatively, ongoing attrition of the islands values by increased levels of destructive use is inevitable. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32991 10.1080/14486563.2014.985267 Environment Institute of Australia restricted |
| spellingShingle | Wardell-Johnson, Grant Schoeman, D. Schlacher, T. Wardell-Johnson, Angela Weston, M. Shimizu, Y. Conroy, G. Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title | Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title_full | Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title_fullStr | Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title_short | Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: What type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become? |
| title_sort | re-framing values for a world heritage future: what type of icon will k'gari-fraser island become? |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32991 |