“Across thousands of hectares of significant koala areas in eastern Australia – from the Southern Highlands to Central Queensland – the Australian government is supporting strategic habitat restoration projects including pest and weed control, revegetation, improving land management practices, community workshops and field days, fire planning and management, and koala surveys.”

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Late last month, the federal government announced a $50 million funding boost to help koala conservation, habitat restoration, population monitoring and research into animal health.

The Conservation Foundation research shows 61 per cent of the koala habitat approved to be cleared under the federal environment law was for mining, 12 per cent was for land transport and 11 per cent was for residential housing projects.

However, the foundation notes that the area cleared may be higher, given that agriculture is rarely assessed under the national environment law and native forest logging is exempt from this law.

“The amount of koala habitat approved for clearing has increased every year since 2012,” the organisation’s nature campaign manager, Basha Stasak, said.

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“The first thing federal and state governments should do for koalas is immediately stop approving the destruction of their homes for commercial projects.

“Australia’s national environment laws are so weak they have done little to stem the ongoing destruction of koala habitat – especially in Queensland and NSW – since the species was declared vulnerable a decade ago.

“If we want our grandchildren to see koalas in the wild, governments must stop approving the bulldozing of their homes for mines and new housing estates.”

WWF-Australia conservation scientist Stuart Blanch said land clearing had been the biggest threat to koalas for many years, although climate change was now equally destructive.

Dr Blanch said a change in the koala listing would enable stronger state and federal laws, but it also needed to be complemented by stronger land-clearing regulation, adequate support for landowners and increased funding for conservation efforts.

While populations are difficult to estimate, the scientific committee put the number of koalas in 2001 at about 184,700 Australia-wide. This is believed to have since declined to about 92,200. Estimates say there could be as few as 63,500 by 2032.

In NSW, the government has most recently cited research from 2012, estimating 36,000 koalas in the state. However, other interested parties told a recent government inquiry that koala populations could be closer to 15,000 to 20,000.

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NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into koala numbers last year, said the time had come for society and political leaders to decide how seriously they wanted to protect the remaining population of koalas.

“It’s now absolutely clear that we can either save our remaining koalas or we can keep expanding development in their habitat. We can’t have both.”

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