Canberra is considering listing koalas on the east coast as endangered, Australian Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
Australia already classifies east coast koalas as vulnerable, their numbers under pressure from logging, urban encroachment and a pervasive infection.
On top of that, bushfires across New South Wales and Queensland states in 2019 and last year were estimated to have killed as many as 30 percent of the population.
Photo: Reuters
Scientists and academics have said that the iconic Australian marsupial could become extinct by 2050 in New South Wakes, and Ley said that she has asked the Australian Threatened Species Scientific Committee to consider including koalas on its endangered species list.
“We want to see koala populations recover and we are investing A$24 million [US$18.1 million] in habitat restoration, disease and genome research, population mapping and veterinary support,” Ley said.
Wildlife groups welcomed the move, but said that it should have happened much earlier.
“Had Australia put in place an independent compliance agency in 2012 when the koala in eastern Australia was first listed as vulnerable, we could have avoided this day, but we didn’t, we kept on with business as usual,” WWF-Australia senior manager Stuart Blanch said.
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