Today’s announcement that koalas will be finally listed as Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is a huge wake up call for protecting koala habitat in New South Wales.
“The endangered listing of koalas is a devastating reflection of the reality for koalas in Australia. Koala numbers have been in freefall thanks to habitat destruction. The NSW Government should follow suit and list koalas as endangered under the Biodiversity Conservation Act” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.
“The Commonwealth finally acknowledging that koalas are endangered is good news, and should now prompt NSW to follow suit so that they can be properly managed, starting with protecting habitat”
“If you want to save koalas you have to protect their trees. It is not complex. But koala habitat continues to be destroyed because of weak government policy at both state and federal levels.”
“The infamous koala wars of 2020 has now seen the New South Wales Government sit on its hands while this iconic species has been in decline. It’s time they resolved the impasse on land clearing and private native forestry codes and properly protect habitat”
“The NSW Koala strategy expired on 30 June last year and we are yet to see a new one. There are many opportunities for the NSW Government to drastically improve how koala habitat is managed in this state’
“We are calling on the NSW Government to immediately:
- Ban the destruction of koala habitat, on both public and private land;
- End native forest logging; and
- Expand the National Parks estate to protect high quality koala habitat including the proposed Great Koala National Park”