Koalas in the wild NSW are predicted to go extinct by 2050 and the NSW government has said their preservation in the wild is of the highest priority, yet they won’t stop logging of high-value habitat.
Your feedback
The strategy for koala conservation is currently under review and the community is being asked for feedback on the best ways to help NSW’s endangered koalas.
‘In the lead-up to the Koala Summit (at Taronga Zoo on 22 March), we are launching this paper to seek innovative ideas and feedback. Everyone who cares about the future of our precious koalas is encouraged to provide their views,’ said Minister for Climate Change and the Environment Penny Sharpe.
Protect high-value habitat?
‘The NSW government’s 2021 Koala Strategy identifies that the highest priority to avoid the extinction of koalas in the wild by 2050 is to protect their habitat,’ explained North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Dailan Pugh.
‘To this end they have allocated $71 million to buy private properties and implement conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares. So far they have bought 10,000ha of land to add to national parks and entered conservation agreements over 7,700ha of private land. Only part of this is high-quality Koala habitat.
‘There are 230,000 hectares of State Forests on the NSW North Coast identified as high-quality koala habitat by the NSW government and as Nationally Important Koala Areas by the Commonwealth government, yet both governments refuse to stop logging them.
Subsidising koala deaths
‘The NSW Forestry Corporation is losing $15 million a year, and getting tens of millions in equity injections, to log tens of thousands of koala feed trees in thousands of hectares of high-quality koala habitat every year.’
Unlike NSW, Victoria and WA have both brought forward an end to native forest logging that started on 1 January, 2024.
‘If the government was serious about saving koalas and saving money then their highest priority must be to protect koala habitat on public land,’ Mr Pugh told The Echo.
‘The government has identified 50 koala populations “where koalas have the potential to persist over the long term”, and in 2021 prioritised 19 of these for immediate protection of strongholds, including in the Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance (Whiporie-Rappville).
‘Despite this they (NSW Forestry) are right now logging identified koala strongholds in Braemar and Myrtle State Forests within the Banyabba ARKS.
‘The government is asking people to tell them what else they should be doing to protect koala habitat.
‘Please tell them to immediately stop logging Koala habitat on public lands,’ Mr Pugh said.
What do koalas do for us?
F the koalas. Even the trees they depend on are f…ing the ground.
Why do people care so much about something when people, real human people, are living in cars and dying on streets?
“Ah but mahh kawwhallazz” and then complain about the noise they make mating outside your koala habitat eco-friendly banana-skin-glass window.
Koalas can go the way of the dodo, for all the difference it makes. Is the world worse off without dodos? Did your property price drop? Did the price of fuel go up or down?
Nothing changes if the koala goes extinct. I say the sooner the better. Not that I want them to. Don’t tar me with that brush. I’m just saying, sh.t happens. Are we crying over dodos? Then stop crying over koalas. Stop wasting our resources when humans are living on the streets.
No need for dodo business, we can Panda up so even sweethearts like you can enjoy 😊
It is difficult to see the ramifications on how our natural environment engages with humans survival, but part of the reason people are living in cars and dying on the street is because the removal of Koala carbon capture trees is increasing global heat and evaporation, causing increased intensity of bushfires and floods that have destroyed peoples homes, so they are now living in cars and dying on the street.
I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. Koalas will go the way of the Panda. They are just too vulnerable to withstand human habitation. Sad I know but at least we will be able to see them in zoological facilities. The ones in Taronga Western Plains seem happy and they are well looked after. One can get quite close to them.
“‘Please tell them to immediately stop logging Koala habitat on public lands,’ Mr Pugh said.”, not going to happen whilst Premier Minns happy to continue with the ForestSlaughterFest.
if putting in a Submission it may be useful to inform the State Govt that Byron Council is sabotaging its own Byron Coast Koala Plan of Management as Council has gone from enforcing the prohibition on keeping dogs in some estates where there are Koalas, to telling new residents that they can have dogs. And declining to enact Wildlife Protection Areas to prohibit dogs on the public roads and reserves adjacent to Nature Reserves etc, as in West Byron, in breach of the State Govts “Developments adjacent to National Parks and Wildlife Service lands”.
“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls
It tolls for thee”
John Donne
Ask not.
You have a different version of Donne’s poem?