What to do on Wild Koala Day May 3
Wild Koala Day is an international event to celebrate wild koalas and protect their habitats.
On May 3 2022 we call on everyone to spread the word about protecting koalas by doing some or all of these activities. You can help koalas from home!
1
Protect a Forest
Existing forests are precious and under threat world-wide. New trees take decades to mature, so protecting what we have is critical to koala’s survival as a species.
Sign a petition to protect a koala forest now:
Protect 50ha of koala habitat in Redlands, Qld from a mine Feb 2022; 24K signatures
Protect koala habitat from a caravan park, Port Macquarie NSW Feb 2022; 30K signatures
Change the laws to protect koala habitat Feb 2022; 14K signatures
Change the route of inland rail to protect Southbrook koalas Qld Feb 2022; 70 signatures
Mining, housing and related developments, road and rail infrastructure are the worst destroyers of koala habitat. Call or email your local member of parliament and let them know you are watching how they vote on laws that affect habitat destruction. Tell them you do not accept development approvals on koala habitat and will remember their position when you vote.
Housing developers lobby governments hard to gain access to our forests. When buying a house, let the developer know you take their past performance into account. To find out, search their name and “koala” in the news – if they have been cutting down koala habitat you will soon find it. You can do this by email, or in the contact form on their website.
Only buy recycled office paper and toilet paper, or paper from non-timber sources. Logging of native forest has already been linked to local extinctions of koalas in the Eden region of NSW. [1]
Use a keep-cup/reusable cup for your takeaway coffee. Most disposable coffee cups are made from virgin timber. Hardly any disposable coffee cups are really recyclable – in fact Planet Ark recommends putting all of them in the bin. [2]
2
Plant a Tree
Plant a tree, or register to plant a tree. Sign up today with these organisations which run tree planting days in koala habitat:
Koala Clancy Foundation, VICTORIA
Bangalow Koalas, NSW
Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation, VIC
Koala Action Gympie Region, QLD
Queensland Koala Crusaders, QLD
Clarence Valley Koala Working Group NSW
All around the world we are losing forest at a rate of 3.3million hectares per year. Yet trees help our atmosphere, store carbon and reduce the impacts of climate change, and provide food for birds, insects and mammals that contribute to the web of life. Koalas, most of all, need a healthy global environment.
OVERSEAS? You can still plant a tree at home and indirectly, in the long term, it will help a koala.
3
Phone a Pollie
Politicians make laws on behalf of us. They can only reflect our values if we tell them what is important to us. In Australia, they have begun to realise that koalas are a vote-winner, but they are hoping to buy us off with cash, while allowing their mining, housing & polluting donors to continue unabated. Tell them why koalas are important to you.
Phone your politician now: read our blog about who and how to call, what to say.
Here’s an example: in Queensland the Vegetation Management Act (1999) was weakened by the Newman government in 2013 to allow landowners to clear regrowth forest in waterways (prime koala habitat) and to ‘self-assess’ whether they needed permission to clear forest. This amendment led to a tripling of the rate of forest clearance in Queensland. [3][4] In early 2016, the Palaszczuk Labor government proposed an amendment to the law to slow biodiversity loss, but they failed by just 2 votes. Could a few more phone calls have saved thousands of hectares of koala forest?
Click here for contact details for Australian politicians and environment ministers and a suggested phone and letter/email template.