Australia’s New South Wales state government plans to combine 315,000 hectares of national park and public forest land to make the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) starting from as early as 2025. This would protect an estimated 15 per cent of the state’s dwindling koala population.
But there has been increased forest logging in the area, and environmentalists and local forest advocates are warning that the best trees for koalas to eat could be gone by the time the park is enlarged.
“The harm that’s done here will take a long time to repair, and in some respects, it might never repair,” said Mark Graham, a local forest advocate.
Environmental groups want the government to ban logging in all of the areas under the proposed GKNP.
“They should create the Great Koala National Park and while they do that, stop these koala feed trees being logged,” said Stuart Blanch, a scientist from the World Wide Fund for Nature - Australia.
