Commitment to end land clearing missing from Beattie koala plan
28 Mar 2003
SYDNEY: Plans by the Queensland Government to prepare a State-wide koala conservation management program have been described by WWF-Australia as "environmental window dressing".
"Koalas have been protected under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act for the past ten years, but their habitat is not - that is the problem" said Peter Cosier, WWF-Australia policy specialist.
"If Premier Beattie is serious about saving koalas he needs to take immediate action to end broad-scale land clearing of remnant vegetation throughout the State."
Mr Cosier said a recent WWF-Australia report written by leading Australian scientists estimated that at least 100 million native mammals, birds and reptiles die each year as a result of broad-scale clearing of remnant native vegetation in Queensland.
"Reptiles, possums and gliders, wallabies, dunnarts and bandicoots account for the greater part of this decimation of native wildlife" he said.
The WWF-Australia report, written by Dr Hal Cogger, Professor Hugh Ford, Dr Christopher Johnson, James Holman and Don Butler, calculated that 2.1 million mammals die in Queensland each year as a result of broad-scale clearing of remnant vegetation.
This figure includes 342,000 possums and gliders (a third of which are tiny feathertail gliders), 29,000 bandicoots and 19,000 koalas.
"The Premier admits that more action is needed to protect koalas from habitat loss but fails to think beyond costly and ultimately ineffective research, rescue and rehabilitation programs," said Mr Cosier.
"Without an end to clearing of remnant bushland, these are token actions. The Premier should stop kicking points and start kicking goals."
WWF's report on the impact of land clearing on Queensland's wildlife estimated that 600 koalas were killed each year in south-east Queensland compared to 115,000 possums and gliders and 17,000 bandicoots. In the Brigalow Belt, an estimated 18,000 koalas were killed each year by land clearing compared with 110,000 possums and gliders, Mr Cosier said.
