Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Abstract

The sub-Antarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) group is an Australian external territory located in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean. The island group was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1997 for its outstanding natural universal values, primarily due to the relative absence of human influence on the natural environment. The Territory also forms part of a 65 000 km2 Marine Reserve, declared under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in 2002 to protect the conservation values of the islands and the surrounding unique and vulnerable marine ecosystems. The Territory and Marine Reserve are managed by the Australian Antarctic Division of the Department of Environment and Water Resources, in accordance with the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan 2005, which aims to address a range of potential human pressures, most notably the risk of introduced species.