fed: US help sought to draft koala law

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2001
fed: US help sought to draft koala law

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, April 2 AAP - A group seeking new federal laws to protect koalas has enlisted
the help of United States environmental experts.

Australian Koala Foundation executive director Deborah Tabart is meeting with US environmental
lobbyists, scientists and lawyers in Queensland this week to draft a National Koala Act.

Ms Tabart said today there was no federal legislation to protect the koala's habitat,
80 per cent of which occurred on private land.

She said she hoped an individual MP or party would get behind the draft act.

She said the number of koalas in Australia had fallen from about 12 million in the
1920s to 100,000 now, but it remained listed as "common".

Most breeding-age female koalas only had one or two babies a year, she said.

"The scariest thing is even if you take the numbers away, the fragmentation of habitat
is massive," Ms Tabart said.

"It's time the koala and its power as a flagship for the protection of biodiversity
on private land was taken seriously."

The US recently listed the koala as "threatened" under its Endangered Species Act -
one category below endangered.

Senior vice-president of US lobby group Defenders of Wildlife, Mark Shaffer, said the
listing of koalas was an important step in securing their future.

"It signals to many others in the world that these are animals that are in trouble
and need to be of conservation concern," Mr Shaffer said.

"The listing was based primarily on the past, current and projected losses in habitat."

Ms Tabart said the draft act would provide incentives for landholders to protect koala
habitat, either through compensation or tax incentives.

About 80 per cent of the eucalyptus forest from the koala's range has been cleared
since European settlement and thousands of koalas were killed each year by dogs and cars,
she said.

"At present the koala is reliant upon a range of environmental legislation, must of
which is state-based and much of which has limited specific applicability for protection
of koalas and koala habitat," she said.

"Goodwill alone towards koalas will not be able to save the species without careful
planning and effective legislation supported by a national conservation mandate."

Mr Shaffer said US environmentalists were interested in the koala as part of the broader
issue of maintaining endangered species habitats on private property.

"Can you do that through regulation alone, do you have to always buy it or is there
some middle ground?" Mr Shaffer said.

"That issue is in play with the koala in Australia as it is with the spotted owls and
grizzly bears in the US."

AAP pjo/sc/mjm

KEYWORD: KOALAS (WITH PIX)

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