SAVE HABITAT TO SAVE KOALAS

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) has called on the NSW Government to stop approving koala habitat for clearing and logging. 

NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh pointed out the illogical situation where koala habitat continues to be cleared while the NSW Government spends tens of millions of dollars on koala hospitals, open range zoos and planting seedlings.  All of this will not prevent koalas becoming extinct in the wild unless existing koala habitat is protected.

“Every day the NSW Government is allowing the Forestry Corporation to cut down mature Koala feed trees in public forests, and farmers to bulldoze them, while their propaganda arm goes into over-drive pretending that Koalas don’t need their feed trees.

“We know that Koalas only utilise certain individuals of certain species, and that the larger those trees are the more they use them. Protecting these key trees and allowing others to mature is essential for Koala’s survival.

“If the NSW Government is sincere about saving Koalas they need to ensure thorough surveys of potential habitat before clearing or logging is allowed, and to protect any core Koala habitat found.

“For a start they can ditch their current policy that if a logger sees a Koala in a tree they just wait for it to leave before they cut its home down, Mr. Pugh said.

 

NSW KOALA STRATEGY MARK II

The 2019/20 bushfires, and a damning report from the 2019 Legislative Council Inquiry into NSW Koala Populations sent the NSW government hurrying to produce a report claiming successes with their earlier Strategy, and deciding on further tactics to prevent Australia from losing a globally renowned species on their watch.

Will this updated Strategy be any better?  It comes with funding of $193.3 million, along with 30 actions aimed at doubling NSW koala numbers by 2050. This in itself could be questionable when eventual outcomes are released since koala numbers today are not known, with an estimate of 15,000 to 30,000, giving a ballpark figure of 20,000.

There is also concern that this commitment will not see any marked changes, for a number of reasons. The main one is that although over 280,000 ha of premium and secondary koala habitat is officially identified in north-east NSW State forests alone, with some supporting important koala hubs, there are still no plans to permanently protect these vital habitats from logging.

Another is that instead of basing conservation outcomes on legislative changes and government responsibilities, they once again are to rest on private landowner decisions - to either sell their homes to the government, or take up binding conservation agreements (CAs) attached to their properties' titles. For the first option the government wants 15,000 ha, with some already selected from the Northern Rivers. For the CAs, they plan for just 7,000 ha from across the whole of NSW. This does not generate confidence that many necessary koala corridors will be safely protected.

Also the actual protection value of a CA can often depend on adjoining neighbours, who can legally log their properties, and gradually clear for a number of legitimate reasons, even through koala habitat.

On a more positive note, if this funding can support a dedicated effort to bring our koalas back from the brink, then we might hope to see some level of success, perhaps to a point where a passing tourist in known koala habitat might even be able to see a koala.

- Patricia Edwards

 

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , May 18, 2022.

 

NATIONALS' KOALA KILLING BILL TO BE REVIEWED

North East Forest Alliance 

MEDIA RELEASE

November 19, 2020 

The decision by the NSW Upper House today to refer the National Party's Koala killing bill to the Koala inquiry for review has been welcomed by the North East Forest Alliance as a chance to expose its disastrous consequences for the survival of Koalas, along with some of the dirty background dealings.

Catherine Cusack today moved an amendment that referred the National Party's 's Local Land Services (Amendment) Bill to Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment for review. This was narrowly passed by 19 to 18 votes.

North East Forest Alliance sincerely thanks Liberal Catherine Cusack for coming to the rescue of Koalas today by passionately refusing to support the National Party's Koala killing bill when it was presented to the NSW Upper House today, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

"The bill has been referred to the committee that undertook the inquiry 'Koala populations and habitat in New South Wales,' that exposed the grossly inadequate protection for Koalas on private land and their likely extinction by 2050 unless we take real and meaningful action to save them.

"We trust that this will give an opportunity to expose the far reaching and disastrous consequences of the National's Local Land Services (Amendment) Bill for Koalas, and show the pretence that it was benign for Koalas up as a lie.

"It may also shed some light on the Machiavellian machinations of the National Party in misrepresenting the currency of the maps which had already been dropped, threatening to resign from the coalition unless the Liberals agreed to all their demands, making legislative changes that the Liberals now say hadn't been agreed and they inadvertently voted for, and apparent backroom deals to stop Councils including core Koala habitat in environment zones.

"While Premier Gladys Berejiklian claimed to stand strong, she effectively capitulated to the National's demands by narrowing the definition of core Koala habitat in the Koala State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) to make it harder to identify core Koala habitat, and then gave the Nationals free reign to make dramatic changes to the Local Land Services Act.

"Not only did the Nationals seek to remove the prohibitions on logging and broadscale clearing of core Koala habitat, their bill also tried to stop Councils from being able to include core Koala habitat in environment protection zones, and tried to prohibit Councils from being able to regulate logging and clearing in environmental zones.

"Catherine Cusack has shown that she has enough integrity to stand up against National Party bullying for the survival of Koalas by moving to refer this bill back to the Koala committee. She is the saviour for the 67% of Koalas that live on private lands" Mr. Pugh said.

 

NSW LOWER HOUSE PUTS KOALAS ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXTINCTION

NATURE  CONSERVATION  COUNCIL

Media Release

22 October 2020

The Coalition government’s Local Land Services Amendment Bill endangers koalas and scuppers any hope the government will achieve its goal of doubling koala populations by 2050.

The bill passed the NSW lower house yesterday and is scheduled to be debated in the Legislative Council in November. 

“If this bill passes, developers and big agribusiness will be free to destroy koala habitat in nine out of 10 council areas across NSW where koalas are likely to occur,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“The bill not only limits koala protection laws to a tiny portion of the state, it rules out ever extending those protections into new areas where they are desperately needed.

“If passed by members of the upper house, this law will allow property developers to bulldoze koala trees and subdivide some of the best koala forests left in NSW to create hobby farms and suburbs.

“Just weeks ago Liberal MPs and the Premier stared down Deputy Premier Barilaro over koala protections. 

“To now vote for a massive weakening of the laws is a disappointing back down.

“Currently, the koala SEPP  (State Environmental Planning Policy) only applies in six of the 88 council areas where koalas are likely to occur.

“The changes mean genuine efforts to protect koalas on private land will be limited to those areas.

“The government needs to urgently tell the people of NSW how it will ensure koala feed trees and habitat will not be lost because of a careless lack of regulation of land clearing.

“We call on members of the Legislative Council reject this bill so our koalas have a fighting chance of living beyond 2050.”

 

GOVERNMENT APPROVED EXTINCTION

I have no doubt that the NSW Government, despite occasional bouts of insincere 'hand wringing', and non-specific funding announcements, doesn't give a damn about koalas. The failure over many decades to even acknowledge climate change, much less take action to mitigate the impacts, has now led to the incineration of hundreds if not thousands of these iconic marsupials.

The current government also abolished the Native Vegetation Act, opening the flood gates to land clearing on private property.  It also changed the Integrated Forests Operations approval, removing some previous koala protections, and allowing the clear-felling of large areas of state forests, some of it core koala habitat.

Recently we learned that Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management (CKPOM), that councils are required to formulate, are “frozen for years in a sea of red tape”. Plans designed to protect koalas and their habitat across NSW are taking years to be approved by the State Government.

Claims these delays are the result of developers’ lobbying may well be true but, given local experience, one wonders just how effective those CKPOMs are. Just two months ago, developers were granted approval to bulldoze 14 hectares of forest at Iluka, containing core koala habitat and providing a vital fauna movement corridor.

In that case a CKPOM was already approved, and states: “The primary aims of this Plan are to ensure that the current extent of koala habitat is maintained and improved, and not reduced; and to mitigate processes which are limiting koala occupancy rates and/or population sizes”. 

We are also assured in the Plan objectives that Council would: “minimise the potential for adverse impacts and disturbances to current and future areas of koala habitat; protect koala habitat in order to, as a minimum, maintain koala populations across their current range”, and “create, manage and/or restore koala habitat linkages and corridors.

All of these were ignored by Clarence Valley Council's Planners, the majority of Councillors, the Federal Minister for the Environment, and finally the Joint Regional Planning Panel, all of whom gave the development their tick of approval.

This is government-approved extinction in action.

            John Edwards

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on December 30, 2019.