Talk:Peter Hitchcock (nature conservationist)

Chronology for expanding the article

196XXXXX

• born the son of a cabinet maker
• sister Pauline, brother David

196XXXXX

• degree in Forestry
• early career as a NSW forester

1969XXXX

• public outcry over the advent of the Harris-Daishowa woodchip mill in Eden in 1969

197XXXXX

• moved to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
  • investigated and established new national parks and nature reserves.
  • advocated a scientific approach on representatives and adequacy of the reserve system
  • established a string of coastal national parks on the NSW north coast under sand mining threats, including the Myall Lakes National Park
• on the NSW south coast, in response to public outcry over the advent of the Harris-Daishowa woodchip mill in Eden in 1969 there was a change from selective forest logging to clear felling, Peter Hitchcock helped to establish many new national parks to protect these precious tall forests
• took a strategic approach of developing a rainforest conservation policy based on biological survey

1982XXXX

• protected NSW rainforests including suite of Gondwana Rainforests parks in the north of NSW since World Heritage listed
• suite of Gondwana Rainforest parks were dedicated after a famed 1982 rainforest conservation decision by the Wran Government

1985XXXX

• cited in environmental section of BHP Awards for Excellence

19900126 (Australia Day)

• Order of Australia (OAM) for services to conservation and the environment

19921230

• Peter Hitchcock AM, director of the Wet Tropics management agency, appointed to the Australian Heritage Commission by then Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, Ros Kelly

1993XXXX

• awarded The IBM Award for Environmental Excellence for contribution to conservation

1996XXXX

• Packard International Parks Merit Award 1996

1998XXXX

• UNESCO mission investigating possible World Heritage in danger listing for Kakadu World Heritage Area heard evidence from former UNESCO consultant Peter Hitchcock that there are severe inadequacies in the environmental assessment process, and that the Jabiluka mine together with other possible projects such as Koongarra will threaten Kakadu's unique natural and cultural heritage values

2012XXXX

• influential in gaining the addition of more than 170,000 hectares of mainly old-growth forest to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

20140205

• "the government has asked the UN's World Heritage Committee to de-list 74,000 hectares of the wilderness and rainforest for which Tasmania is internationally renowned. Mr Hunt claims the area - among 170,000 hectares listed only last year, at the request of the previous Labor government - is degraded as a result of being logged, and should not have been listed. But that is disputed by, among others, Peter Hitchcock, an international consultant on world heritage values, who says about 90 per cent of it is pristine. Mr Hitchcock told The Australian that the forests in question were "outstanding by any stretch of the imagination". According to Environment Tasmania, a leading conservation group, they are part of a unique tall eucalypt ecosystem - the southern hemisphere's equivalent of California's redwoods, with some trees more than 400 years old and up to 100 metres high. Even Tasmania's timber industry opposes the move, because the 170,000-hectare listing was the centrepiece of a "peace deal" struck between the industry, unions and green groups in 2011 after decades of warring over the forests.

20140612

• appears on the ABC 7:30 report as advisor who assisted the expansion of the Tasmanial World Heritage Area, commenting on Tony Abbott Government world first application to take forests off the world heritage list to make available for logging, where Peter Hitchcock confirms the forests are in fact old growth forests and the application makes no mention of world heritage area and claims the forests as being disturbed without quantifying disturbance

20151017

• Peter Hitchcock, AM, Cairns, Queensland.

Now semi-retired, Hitchcock spent most of his working life establishing new parks and reserves in Australia before founding a consultancy on World Heritage issues. On the whole, though, Hitchcock believes World Heritage listing "is undoubtedly a positive thing. It creates a large international community of interest. So if any World Heritage site becomes threatened, you can guarantee there will be lots of work behind the scenes to get the offender to back off." He saw this for himself at the 2014 World Heritage Committee meeting in Dohar "when Australia's former prime minister Tony Abbott sought to revoke the World Heritage listing of the Tasmanian Wilderness. "That was unceremoniously thrown out, but was such an embarrassment for Australia. Revoking World Heritage listing to allow logging had never been attempted before."

2018XXXX

• joined a Smithsonian Institution expedition to Patagonia to feature in documentary filming and to investigate Eucalyptus fossils which are 52 million years old, the Gondwana link to today's Eucalypts of Australia

20190520

• Peter Hitchcock is survived by his wife Liana, sister Pauline, brother David, and children Phillip, Jenny, Ellie, Joe and Jess, and their families

Career (sequence 1944-2019)

• Degree in Forestry
• 1960's: Forester, NSW
• deputy director NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service (Policy and Wildlife), saw him take on the role of investigating and establishing new national parks and nature reserves. He was an early advocate for a more scientific approach on representativeness and adequacy of the reserve system. NSW parks and forest reserves instrumental in identifying and protecting include Arakoon, Bundjalung, Yuragir, Nightcap, Wollemi, Goulburn River, Deua, Wadbilliga, Werrikimbe, Oxley Wild Rivers, Washpool, Myall Lakes, Mallee Cliffs and the Border Ranges National Parks
• first executive director of the Wet Tropics Management Authority in Cairns
• remained in Cairns as an environmental and natural heritage consultant.
• served as a global advisor on World Heritage to UNESCO's International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and on behalf of the IUCN, he reviewed nominations for World Heritage listing all over the world, including in the Middle East (Cedars of Lebanon), Madagascar, Indonesian rainforests in Borneo and Sulawesi, and Lorentz in PNG.
• with his wife Liana, he moved to Borneo to work with an international rainforest conservation NGO, coming up against entrenched corruption associated with clearing for the Palm Oil Industry.
• moved to Port Moresby when he was appointed as an AusAID advisor to the Papua New Guinea Government in a World Heritage nomination for the Owen Stanley Ranges and Kokoda Track forests of eastern PNG.
• Returning to Australia, he was appointed Adjunct Research Fellow at the Cairns Institute of James Cook University.