In a letter sent to NSW Premier Chris Minns environmental groups are united: Only the full protection of 176,000-hectares of State Forest inside the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP) will do. Any compromise fails Australia’s most iconic and endangered wildlife.
“We call on the Minns government to protect the full extent of the proposed Great Koala National Park. Protection of the whole Park would create an exceptional environmental legacy for the Minns Government. Anything less than the full proposed park will be an inadequate response to the crisis faced by koalas in NSW” said Gary Dunnett, CEO of the National Parks Association of NSW.
“The proposed Great Koala National Park is desperately needed to halt the rapid decline of the koala in NSW. It was the headline environmental promise of the current Labor government. Yet more than 7,000 hectares of logging has fragmented and damaged over 15,000 hectares of some of the best koala habitat in the world within the proposed Park, all occurring since this government was elected. If the Minns government was committed to preventing the extinction of the koala in NSW, all logging would have been halted within the Park assessment area immediately after the election” said Andrew Wong, Operations Manager for Wilderness Australia.
“With over 90% of Australia’s timber coming from plantations, native forest logging is a dying industry kept afloat by taxpayer-funded handouts. The choice is simple: fully protect the GKNP and end native forest logging or keep wasting public money on destruction. The GKNP is one step in ending native forest logging in NSW. Without full protection, logging will push koalas and other endangered species toward extinction. Partial protection is no protection,” said Doro Babeck, NSW Campaigner Bob Brown Foundation.
Meanwhile, the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) is pushing misleading claims on jobs and koala numbers to justify continued propping up the failing native forest logging industry. The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) has strongly condemned these claims.
“The AWU’s estimate of 9,000 job losses due to the establishment of the GKNP is not only inaccurate but misleading. The figure, which suggests the GKNP would cause widespread job losses, implies that the establishment of a single national park would wipe out all forestry jobs across the state. This includes roles in both plantations and private native forests – sectors that are in no way impacted. The GKNP will not only benefit koalas, Coffs Harbour and other communities in the area will also see a significant increase in eco-tourism jobs and other sustainable industries that a national park can bring.”
“Assertions made by the AWU about the koala population in NSW are equally troubling, suggesting that they have doubled over a decade in which all evidence, including their recent listing as endangered, points to severe decline,” Mr Dunnett concluded.
ENDS