Is $50 million enough for koalas?

The Federal Government has announced a record $50 million investment into koala conservation, but conservationists have stopped short of fully praising the move.

Of the $50m, $20m will go towards grants for projects led by Natural Resource Management groups, NGOs, Indigenous groups, and State and Territory governments, to build on work guided by the findings of the National Koala Monitoring Program.

A further $10m will go towards extending the National Koala Monitoring Program, with another $10m for grants for small-scale community projects such as habitat protection and restoration.

Another $2 million will go towards research and application of research outcomes to address health challenges such as koala retrovirus and koala herpes viruses, with a further $1 million to fund expansion of the national training program in koala care, treatment, and triage.

Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, said the new package will take Government spending on koalas to more than $74 million since 2019, bringing together land managers, researchers, veterinarians and citizen scientists, to address a full range of support strategies.

“The extra funding will build on work already happening across the koalas’ range to restore and connect important habitat patches, control feral animals and weeds and improve habitat.

“Together we can ensure a healthy future for the koala and this decision, along with the total $74 million we have committed to koalas since 2019 will play a key role in that process.”

But conservationists are not convinced the funding, nor the upgrading of koalas’ conservation status from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ in New South Wales, Queensland, and the ACT, are enough.

Chair of the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), Deborah Tabart OAM, said the Government need to back up its words with legislative action.

“These funds are generous, but the detail is lacking. If we could turn back time, the solution would have been ‘don’t destroy koala habitat in the first place’. But now that the damage has been done, we can only hope Federal Government has enough sense to use this huge allocation of taxpayer funds to implement actual solutions, not tokenistic gestures,” Ms Tabart said.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-02-22/10

in the 22 February 2022 edition
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