The concept of a Gondwana World Park, or Gondwana Forests Sanctuary, to protect the world's southernmost forests, originated in South America in 1994. Malu Sierra and Adrianna Hoffman, of Defensores del Bosques Chilenos, first began to promote the concept after walking in the ancient Chilean forests. Noting that forests in Chile enjoyed little protection and were being rapidly destroyed, they proposed creating a terrestrial counterpart of the Southern Whale Sanctuary, created in the 1960s to protect the world's imperiled whale species. The Chileans then began to collaborate with others in Chile and across the Andes in Argentina. Lucas Chiappe, the Argentinean botanist and founder of Proyecto Lemu, was an early proponent of the Gondwana concept and designed the Gondwana logo, which has been the hallmark of the campaign for many years. In 1998, the first meeting of the Gondwana Forest Sanctuary Campaign took place in Chile, and the idea of spreading the campaign to New Zealand and Australia took root.

The goal of the Gondwana Forest Sanctuary campaign is to create an international, intercontinental sanctuary for the world's southernmost forests - those with evolutionary roots on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. This sanctuary would initially include all remaining native forests south of 40 degrees latitude, and would include parts of southernmost South America, New Zealand, Tasmania, and mainland Australia, and may encompass other areas with Gondwannic forests. Through this cross-continental approach, the Gondwana Campaign seeks to foster a greater ethic of pride in, respect for and conservation of the unique forests of the southern hemisphere. Protected areas such as national and provincial or state parks would be linked through a series of reserves, allowing the ancient Gondwannic forests and associated flora and fauna to flourish and evolve.