Australia finally acts to protect threatened koala populations
High in a eucalyptus tree a koala clings to a branch, her baby on her back, gazing sleepily at the world beneath her. It is a postcard image instinctively associated with Australia, but an increasingly rare sight in the real world as the koala has fallen victim to urban development, drought and disease.
Now the Government is acting to protect one of the country’s national emblems. With scientists warning that the koala could be extinct within decades, it has been listed as a threatened species in parts of the continent.
Researchers believe that at best there are only 100,000 left in the wild. Some environmentalists say this is an overestimate and put the number as low as 45,000. Once, they numbered in the millions across eastern Australia. In Queensland and New South Wales, whole areas that once teemed with koalas now have none. Evidence suggests that in these two states, the koala population has fallen by a third since 1990. In Gunnedah, NSW, promoted as the ‘‘koala capital of the world’’, research shows a 75 per cent decline since 1993.
After an eight-month long Senate inquiry Tony Burke, the Environment Minister, has offered koalas qualified protection. Although they will not be classified as a nationally threatened species, koalas in southeast Queensland will be listed as ‘‘endangered’’ and in some part of NSW as ‘‘vulnerable’’.
The listing means that new building developments, mines and logging operations in the areas could be restricted or halted to protect the koalas, at a potential loss of billions of dollars.
The listing has been a long time coming; there have been three unsuccessful attempts to give the koala protection in the past 15 years.
Professor Hugh Possingham, director of the Spatial Ecology Lab at the University of Queensland, said: ‘‘It will end up with the koala being like the panda. There’ll be 1800 of them scattered around, we’ll have captive breeding programmes, they’ll be in zoos and it will cost us A$100 million [NZ$128M] a year to keep them chugging along.’’
Despite the supposed
national adoration, Australians have tended to regard the koala as dispensable. Early last century it was hunted almost to extinction, then struggled as the human population spread. Although tourists say the koala is the one animal they most want to see and it is estimated to bring in more than A$1 billion a year in revenue, environmentalists are having to fight to save it. The issue has been heightened by Koala immune deficiency syndrome, that has wiped out entire populations.
Possingham welcomed the listing, pointing out that in some parts of Australia – notably Victoria and South Australia – koala populations remained healthy. But he said the restrictions should have been introduced sooner. ‘‘This is crisis management,’’ he said. ‘‘We can save koalas from the brink of extinction but we seem only to react at the last possible minute. There are already areas in New South Wales where they are functionally extinct.’’
Deborah Tabart, the head of the Australia Koala Foundation, believes that the potential loss of revenue from building and coal seam gas has been more important to successive governments than the koala.
She said: ‘‘Over my 25 years of campaigning, the industries have changed but the situation remains the same.’’