The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has refused to put Kakadu National park on the in-danger list, and rightly so. However, it will revisit the issue in six months time. Only one of the 21 member nations, Cuba, voted for an in-danger listing.
There has been a confusion of two issues: uranium mining and the world heritage value of the park. People opposed to uranium mining and the whole nuclear cycle have latched on to the park issue as part of their campaign to prevent mining at Jabiluka, which is inside the park boundary. But the cultural and natural heritage values of the park are not threatened by the mine. The park is in better condition now than at any time since its declaration, 18 years ago. And it is likely to improve Jabiluka mine or not. The park has been well looked after under both Coalition and Labor administrations, and is better looked after than any of half a dozen overseas world-heritage-declared sites. The campaign has not been about heritage, but about uranium mining. It was a misdirected campaign and deserved to fail. That is the case irrespective of whether one is opposed to nuclear power.
The Jabiluka mine site is the size of a couple of football fields in an immense 20,000 square kilometres of park. The mine site is on the very north-eastern boundary of the park. There is already a uranium mine nearby, at Ranger. At this mine site the remaining ore will be processed to yellowcake and exported by 2006 and the ore from Jabiluka will processed for export at the Ranger facility and will swing into production as Ranger winds down. In short, there will be no significant additional uranium extraction from Kakadu than there is now. Moreover, the mine is underground, and with tough environmental safeguards there will be no significant disturbance during mining and there will be complete restitution of the small site when mining ends. Indeed, one might argue that Kakadu will ultimately be a better place when all that nasty uranium is taken away.
Logic was against those who wanted an in-danger listing. When Kakadu was declared 18 years ago it contained the open cut Ranger mine. In all that time, no-one suggested that it put the park in danger, so how could it be that the continuation of mining with a small underground mine could threaten the park.
There was danger in the environmentalists’ anti-uranium tactic in targeting the park. It they had been successful, they would not have stopped the Jabiluka mine. It was going ahead anyway. But they might have succeeded in down-grading the reputation of Kakadu in the eyes of international tourists. That in turn might have resulted in less income for Kakadu which would have resulted in fewer conservation measures.
Incidentally, if the environmentalists stop Jabiluka through other means, they will not do the Aboriginal cause much good. The mine is worth $3.8 billion. It will bring royalties and employment to Aboriginal people.
As Ranger winds down and Jabiluka starts up, the heritage values of Kakadu will continue undamaged. The rock art, the wildlife, the wetlands will continue to attract the scientific, cultural and tourist attention they deserve.
There have been suggestions that the Government has engaged in a massive diplomatic effort to prevent the in-danger listing. That is probably true, but it was done through necessity to counter the massive effort by the anti-uranium miners the other way. The pity is that all the money and effort had not been put in Kakadu itself or any of half a dozen world heritage sites that really are under threat, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia.