Koalas could be extinct by 2050

A massive investment of $193.3 million is aimed to double the beloved marsupial’s numbers by 2050 but koala experts say it won’t work. Read why.

One of Australia’s best-loved marsupials are again under the spotlight with the release of NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s Koala Strategy.

As koalas battle against habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, bushfires, disease, declining genetic diversity, vehicle strike, and dog attacks, some experts say they could be extinct by 2050.

The five-year investment aims to double the number of koalas in NSW by 2050.

The NSW government is investing $193.3 million into a four-pillar strategy to secure habitat, support local conservation, reduce threats, and improve knowledge.

• $107.1 million will fund the protection, restoration and improved management of koala habitat.
• $19.6 million for local communities to conserve koalas and fund partnerships across NSW.
• $23.2 million to address health, safety and rehabilitation of koalas, remove threats, and establish a translocation program.
• $43.4 million to fill knowledge gaps and understanding on NSW koala populations.

Picture: D. Pugh

A spokesman for the Department of Planning and Environment said in order to grow the number of koalas, high-quality connected habitat is needed to support them.

“Based on expert estimates of the area of land koalas need to survive and breed, an additional 100,000 hectares of secure, well-connected habitat with appropriate densities of feed trees will be needed to support an additional 20,000 koalas by 2050,” the spokesman said.

In order for the strategy to achieve this the government is working with private landowners to restore and conserve koala habitat on private land.

Funding is also supporting the acquisition of koala habitat to add to the national park estate.

“Since 2018, 13 properties totalling more than 6,270 hectares have been purchased as part of the Koala Strategy’s action to acquire and reserve land with high koala conservation value in the national parks system,” the spokesman said.

North East Forest Alliance, Dailan Pugh.

But local environmentalist and president of North East Forest Alliance Dailan Pugh thinks the government is “playing politics”.

“The centrepiece of the NSW Koala Strategy is to spend $71 million on private lands, buying properties and implementing conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares,” he said.

“This will not compensate for the Liberal’s promises to the Nationals, as peace terms in the 2020 Koala Wars, to remove the requirement to obtain permission before clearing core Koala habitat, to end the prohibition on logging core koala habitat, to open up all environmental zones for logging, and to stop core koala habitat being added to environmental zones.”

He said koala’s will not be saved by the government throwing money at “piecemeal protection of private land”.

“Similarly their strategy to spend $31.5 million to restore and plant new koala habitat could help, but only if they first stopped clearing and logging existing koala habitat.”

He says the strategy proposes nothing to redress the logging of koala habitat on public lands.

Matilda, the koala. Picture Steve Pohlner

He said protecting and restoring feed and roost trees is a prerequisite for allowing populations to grow on public lands as koalas preferentially choose larger individuals of a limited variety of tree species for feeding.

“The NSW Koala Strategy is set to fail because it does not fulfil the most fundamental requirement of stopping existing koala habitat from being cleared and degraded, and lacks a strategic approach to identify the highest priority lands for protection and revegetation,” Mr Pugh said.