Koala Communique presented to Environment Minister

Friends of the Koala President Lorraine Vass and Lismore’s Environmental Citizen of the Year, Barbara Dobner, yesterday presented the Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, on his visit to Lismore, with the Communiqué from the delegates to the recent Koala Conservation Conference held at Southern Cross University.

The Communiqué expresses delegates’ grave concern about the rapid decline of koala populations in northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland caused by habitat loss and disease.

Ms Vass said signatories are dismayed with the failure of all levels of governments to respond adequately to these problems.
“It is their collective view that extinction thresholds may have already been reached for the remaining koala populations along the east coast,” she said.

Conference delegates have called for urgent government-led action as follows:

• 1. The Federal Government expedites its commitment to reconsider the national status of koalas under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
• 2. Determination of the koala’s status be based on current and available data rather than insisting on the IUCN guideline of 30% decline in the national koala population over three koala generations.
• 3. The precautionary principle is applied given the extent of habitat loss and the impact of diseases which are threatening the koala’s very viability as one of Australia’s iconic species.
• 4. An immediate moratorium is placed on clearing eucalypt forests and woodland communities within the geographic range of the koala, pending further detailed assessment and development of standardised national koala habitat identification and mapping systems.
• 5. Carbon offsetting programs that factor in the maintenance and recovery of threatened species be part of the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as protecting habitat for the koala would have significant benefits for moderating Climate Change as the structurally diverse forests and individual trees in which koalas live also provide vital carbon sinks.
• 6. All tiers of government prepare and implement effective planning laws and policies (ideally in consultation with the Federal Government) that can realistically protect koalas and koala habitat and provide for population recovery.

PICTURE: Page MP Janelle Saffin, Lorraine Vass, Barbara Dobner and Peter Garrett in Lismore yesterday.

Related posts:

1. Friends of the Koala to conduct a course of Basic Training
2. ‘Friends’ call for action on Tweed koala population
3. Koala recovery plan ‘has strengths and weaknesses’
4. Lismore Council grants 21-year lease to Friends of the Koala
5. Koala radio-tracking project is a first

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Related posts:

1. Friends of the Koala to conduct a course of Basic Training
2. ‘Friends’ call for action on Tweed koala population
3. Koala recovery plan ‘has strengths and weaknesses’
4. Lismore Council grants 21-year lease to Friends of the Koala
5. Koala radio-tracking project is a first