Wilderness and Habitat Values
The sheer size and diversity of ecosystems found within the Tarkine wilderness makes it a refuge in which many Tasmanian endemic, threatened, migratory and vagrant species can feed, breed, disperse and recolonise other areas where their populations have fared poorly.

The Tarkine Wilderness hosts Tasmania's greatest density of high quality wild rivers remaining outside existing World Heritage Areas (Commonwealth of Australia 1997). The entire catchments and sub-catchments of several major rivers remain remote and largely inaccessible.
These include the:

• Pedder, Wild Wave, Thornton, Lagoon and Interview Rivers on the west coast
• Donaldson, Little Donaldson, Upper Rapid and Savage Rivers further inland, and Huskisson and Wilson Rivers in the south-east

The ecological integrity and continued evolution in these catchments have remained unaffected by human development.