A koala named Humphrey is comforted by her mother, Willow at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in March 2021. The Australian Government has declared koalas endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the Prime Territory. Australian dollars.
Image of Lisa Maree Williams / Getty
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Image of Lisa Maree Williams / Getty
A koala named Humphrey is comforted by her mother, Willow at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in March 2021. The Australian Government has declared koalas endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the Prime Territory. Australian dollars.
Image of Lisa Maree Williams / Getty
Government officials have declared koalas endangered across much of eastern Australia, citing the impact of drought, bushfires and habitat loss on dwindling marsupial populations. of the country. But some conservation groups say the action is too little, too late.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley announced on Friday that she is strengthening koala protection in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory by change their status from vulnerable to endangered. The government is also providing millions of dollars in conservation funding and seeking state approval for a national restoration plan, she said.
“Together, we can ensure a healthy future for koalas and this decision, together with the total [$53 million U.S.] We’ve been committed to koalas since 2019, which will play a key role in that process,” she said.
The move comes a decade after koala populations in those three areas first appeared classified as vulnerable, which means they face a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium term. Their endangered status means a much more imminent danger.
Without urgent government intervention, koalas in New South Wales would be extinct by 2050, one congressional inquiry released in June 2020 found.
Koala population has dropped drastically
Koala populations have declined significantly in recent years, due to climate-driven weather events and widespread clearing for agricultural and urban development. For example, koala populations in Queensland and New South Wales, was found recently has declined by 50% or more over the past two decades.
The deadly dust fire in 2019 and 2020 – which burned down millions of acres in a matter of months – exacerbating the decline. About 60,000 koalas were “dead, injured or otherwise affected” by the fires, according to a report authorized by World Wildlife Fund Australia.
“Wildfires are the last straw,” said Josey Sharrad, a campaign manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. in a statement Friday release. “This should be a wake-up call for Australia and the government to act much faster to protect critical habitat from development and clearance and seriously address the impacts of climate change. .”
The country has lost 30% of its total koala population between 2018 and 2021, according to a report from the Australian Koala Foundation. That loss was especially stark in New South Wales, where it fell by 41 per cent.
While wildfires contribute to population decline, AKF President Deborah Tabart said last year that they are not the only drivers.
“We have seen a sharp decline in population inland because of droughts, heat waves and lack of water for the koalas to drink,” she said. “I’ve seen some landscapes that look like the moon – with dead trees everywhere.”
Ground clearance is a major factor
Land clearing activity has increased in recent decades, with the World Wildlife Fund Australia noting that 13-fold increase in New South Wales since the government weakened native plant laws in 2016.
Conservation and animal welfare groups have long urged the Australian government to do more to protect the species.
In April 2020, WWF-Australia, International Fund for Animal Welfare and Humane Society collectively called about the federal government’s reclassification of koalas as endangered, said the move would raise funds, boost community support and increase protection of the forests and forests where koalas live. called home.
The Australian government has allocated some funding to koala protection efforts in recent years.
It committed 13 million dollars in 2019 for habitat protection and restoration, health research and medical assistance, and the federal koala surveillance program. And last monththe government announced it will direct nearly 36 million dollars more towards restoration and conservation initiatives over the next four years.
Conservation groups welcome the reclassification but say more action is needed
The three groups welcomed Ley’s announcement on Friday, but stressed that the status change alone was not enough to save the koalas.
They called on the government to take a stronger stance against deforestation and refocus its efforts on forest protection and restoration, saying their words would be empty without action.
Tabart, with the AKF, calls the reclassification “nothing more than a token gesture,” say it is “too little, too late” and meaningful appeal legislative change. This organization has long supported the Koala Protection Actwill focus on protecting koalas from developers.
“Change status is just a word”, AKF tweeted. “There is nothing legal to stop land clearing, which is the main reason why Koalas become homeless and then get sick.”
The organization also criticized the government for choosing not to list koalas as endangered in Victoria and South Australia, saying the decision showed “our political leaders are out of touch with the situation.” What is the current state of koalas?”
Sharrad, with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, praised the decision but also described it as a “double-edged sword”.
“We should never let things get to the point where we risk losing a national symbol,” she said. “If we can’t protect an iconic species endemic to Australia, what chance do lesser-known but equally important species stand a chance?”
