Koalas in the Australian state of New South Wales are on track to become extinct before 2050 due to continuous destruction of their habitat and frequent natural disasters occurring in the region, says an official report by a parliamentary committee of the country. The report further mentions that habitat loss is seen as the biggest threat to the survival of the adorable furry creatures, with a shocking 81% of the land they inhabit in New South Wales now ravaged by bushfires and deforestation.
“Even before the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires, it was clear that the koalas in NSW, already a threatened species, was in significant trouble, with the committee finding that the official government estimate of 36,000 koalas contained in the NSW Koala Strategy is outdated and unreliable, and then came the fires”, Committee Chairwoman Cate Faehrmann writes in the forward to the report. New South Wales Upper House Liberal MP Shayne Mallard says habitat loss and fragmentation was the driving factor.
Following the release of the report, which made 42 recommendations, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia urged immediate action from the government to modify land clearing laws and deforestation in the state of New South Wales. “The NSW Government has failed to stop core koala habitat being bulldozed on private land or chopped down in coastal state forests. No trees, no koalas,” Senior Manager, Land Clearing and Restoration, WWF-Australia Stuart Blanch said in a statement.
“What became crystal clear during this inquiry was that, without urgent government intervention, the koala will become extinct in New South Wales before 2050,” said Faehrmann. The report also suggested that climate change will make the situation worse for the marsupial, by increasing the frequency of bushfires and reducing the quality of the eucalyptus leaf, the animal’s diet.
