Australia will establish a new national park to protect koalas

Officials in Australia are moving forward with the establishment of their nation’s newest national park in a bid to protect an iconic species.

The government of New South Wales has unveiled plans to create the Great Koala National Park. Proposed boundaries of the park have been determined, and the government has laid out plans to help workers who will lose their jobs once logging in the region has been banned completely.

The New South Wales government says the park is required to prevent koalas from being eradicated from the state. Deforestation and bushfires have devastated koala populations in New South Wales. The government there believes only about 12,000 koalas are surviving, and the population is in decline.

“A NSW Legislative Council Committee Inquiry found that, without urgent government intervention to protect habitat and address other threats, koalas would become extinct in New South Wales before 2050,” the state’s environmental regulator said in its announcement. “This inquiry recommended investigating the establishment of a Great Koala National Park.”

The state has determined that Australia’s newest national park will be approximately 176,000 hectares (435,000 acres) in size. The park will be formed from a patchwork of existing state forest lands in consultation with Aboriginal communities.

In addition to the resident koalas, Great Koala National Park will provide refuge for a host of other species facing threats to their survival.

“The park will protect precious old-growth forest and important water catchments, including the Bellingen, Nambucca and Nymboida water supplies,” the New South Wales Environment and Heritage office said. “The park will be a critical refugia for species in a warming climate—the assessment found most of the area has very high or high climate change refugia values.”

Ecological surveys have found that at least 66 threatened animal and 37 threatened plant species call the region home.

Image courtesy of New South Wales Environment and Heritage Office.

The plan for the park’s formation also involves implementing a moratorium on hardwood logging within the future park’s boundaries. The state government is planning a package of economic assistance and support for workers who will lose their jobs.

Preparation for the park’s creation is moving quickly. The New South Wales government says it will put the matter before Parliament next year under the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 1974.

The state government insists that the park is necessary to prevent the extinction of koalas in New South Wales. Great Koala National Park will serve as a lynchpin for the recovery of koala populations in the state and throughout Australia.

“The Great Koala National Park will provide large areas of connected and high-quality habitat to protect this significant koala population,” the state government said.