Wild Koala Day – May 3!

Stop Killing Koala Trees.

Koalas need forests more than they need money.  Governments have heard our calls to protect koalas, but instead of accepting the science and stopping the destruction, they are trying to buy us off with cash.

There’s been enough compromises. Developers and miners have made plenty of money from bulldozing our forests, money they have not passed on to the rest of us.  Government logging companies cut down our forests, even when they don’t make any money from it, just so that they can win elections. It’s time to say no more, while we still have koalas.

Developers: find land elsewhere. Rehabilitate old industrial or mining land.  Renovate old housing developments.  Native forest is not yours, it’s ours.  If we leave it up to you, it will all be gone.

Miners: its time to clean up your mess.  Mine sites are required by law to be rehabilitated after you finish with them.  It almost never happens, and your eyesores are all over our country.  You can afford to do better – mining companies make billions.

Politicians and planners: will you continue to chop down our native forests with your own bulldozers?  Will you keep saying “yes” to your developer mates until all our native forest is gone?  Community groups have been telling you for decades that they don’t want their natural land destroyed. But you’ve let it continue.  Act for us, that is your job, no matter how hard it might be.

On Wild Koala Day we encourage everyone to register to plant a tree, sign a petition to protect a forest, or phone a politician to show them we care about koalas and that they need to stop killing koala trees.

Climate change & deforestation

Koalas are one of the 10 species worldwide most at risk from climate change.  This is due to a ‘perfect storm’ of effects: increasing aridity, increasing frequency of wildfire, increasing length & severity of droughts and heatwaves – all leading to stress and increasing disease.  Add to this the scientifically-recorded damaging effect of increased carbon dioxide on eucalyptus leaves (leads to higher toxins and lower nutritional compounds) and the koala is running out of time.  Only by increasing koala habitat – examples include the Great Koala National Park and Great Forest National Park proposals – will improve their chances.

Meanwhile, Australia is removing koala habitat at a catastrophic rate. Queensland is one of the world’s worst places for deforestation, up there with Brazil.  Deforestation also continues at an alarming pace in NSW and Victoria.  There is just no need for this.  Tourism (which requires koalas) is already a much more profitable industry than agriculture, contributing twice as much revenue as agriculture and twice as many jobs.