Koalas could go extinct by 2050 in Australia’s New South Wales, inquiry warns
- Land clearing for agriculture, urban development, mining and forestry – as well as last year’s massive bush fires – have caused the marsupials’ loss of habitat
- The final report of a year-long parliamentary inquiry called on the government to immediately intervene to protect the species
Koalas in the Australian state of New South Wales could become extinct by 2050 unless the government immediately intervenes to protect the species and its habitat, the final report of a year-long parliamentary inquiry said on Tuesday.
Land clearing for agriculture, urban development, mining and forestry had been the biggest factor in the fragmentation and loss of habitat for the animals in the country’s most populous state over several decades.
A prolonged drought-fuelled bush fire season that ended earlier this year was also devastating for the animals, destroying about a quarter of their habitat across the state, and in some parts up to 81 per cent.
“The evidence could not be more stark,” the 311-page report says. “The only way our children’s grandchildren will see a koala in the wild in New South Wales will be if the government acts upon the committee’s recommendations.”
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Koalas face extinction in Australia’s New South Wales by 2050, report says
The report, commissioned by a multiparty parliamentary committee, makes 42 recommendations, including an urgent census, prioritising the protection of the animal in the planning of urban development, and increasing conservation funding.
It found that the recent bush fires resulted in the deaths of an estimated 5,000 koalas and had a severe impact on roughly one-quarter of the total koala habitat in the state. Previous official estimates of a population of 36,000 koalas were “outdated and unreliable”, it said.
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Stuart Blanch, manager of land clearing and restoration at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia called on the government to heed the recommendations and strengthen protections for the animals’ habitat.
“WWF calls on the premier [of New South Wales] to rewrite weak land clearing laws to protect koala habitat, greatly increase funding for farmers who actively conserve trees where koalas live, and a transition out of logging koala forests and into plantations,” Blanch said in a statement.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Tuesday told reporters the government had already made investments into preserving the animals.
Additional reporting by Kyodo
