Law change a blow for koala population
Thousands of hectares of NSW koala habitat have been destroyed, reports Dominica Sanda, of AAP.
KOALAS have lost more than 5000 hectares of habitat in northern NSW since laws which protected native vegetation were axed, a report has found.
The report by wildlife conservation group WWF and the NSW Nature Conservation Council found since the repeal of the state’s Native Vegetation Act in 2017, the rate of native bushland clearing in Moree and Collarenebri has nearly tripled.
The NSW Government replaced the law with controversial landclearing codes which allow property owners to clear sections of native bushland without prior environmental assessment.
The NCC and WWF compared satellite images of 22,173sq km of land around Moree and Collarenebri for the report, which was released earlier this month.
The extensive clearing of koala habitat was ‘‘detrimental’’ for the popular species which was listed as vulnerable to extinction, WWFAustralia conservationist Stuart Blanch said.
He warned that koalas faced extinction in NSW as early as 2050 and said 5246ha of koala habitat around the two farming communities had been destroyed between mid2017 and mid2018.
‘‘We have to stop this excessive treeclearing if we want to keep koalas alive in the wild for future generations,’’ Mr Blanch said.
NSW NCC chief executive Kate Smolski said the report was just the ‘‘tip of the iceberg’’ as it looked at only a fraction of the state.
She blamed the state government for ‘‘opening the flood gates’’ to the destruction of koala forests.
The report also found nearly 7000ha of habitat for the vulnerablelisted painted honeyeater was destroyed in the same area.
The NSW Department of Environment said it would investigate any reports of illegal land clearing and noted it had in place an ‘‘effective’’ regulatory compliance programme where all potential breaches were assessed.
A department spokesman said the new laws had established tougher penalties for illegal clearing and harming threatened species, and Local Land Services was working with the farming community to help it understand the changes.
The land clearing laws have twice been challenged in the NSW Land and Environment Court by the NCC.