WWF welcomes pledge to create Great Koala National Park

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The World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia has welcomed the New South Wales Opposition’s commitment to establish the Great Koala National Park.

The Opposition today pledged $80 million to help create the major koala safe haven on the mid north coast between Kempsey and Coffs Harbour, which would protect approximately 20% of the wild koala population in New South Wales.

WWF-Australia has been advocating for the Great Koala National Park as part of a program to Regenerate Australia.

WWF-Australia conservation scientist Dr Stuart Blanch said the new national park would help reverse the decline of east coast koalas.

WWF welcomes pledge to create Great Koala National Park

 

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Here is another relevant article.

Koala preservation opens new front for New South Wales teals as they seek to win Coalition seats

Independent candidates say government has ‘completely undermined’ the endangered species

Teal challengers facing off against moderate Coalition MPs in the New South Wales election have blasted the government for refusing to back a proposed 300,000 hectare koala national park, accusing it of failing to protect the endangered species.

As Climate 200-backed independents including Joeline Hackman, who is running in the seat of Manly, visited south coast native forests during a trip organised by the Nature Conservation Council on Thursday, they sought to pressure the Coalition over its land-clearing record.

Saying the Liberals had been “dictated to” by its Nationals partner, Hackman, who is challenging the state’s environment minister, James Griffin, in the March election, said the government had “completely undermined” koala habitat.

“In the last 12 months koalas have been added to the threatened species list,” she said on Thursday.

“Land clearing has doubled since the [Coalition’s] native vegetation laws in 2017 and increased 13-fold in the last decade.”

“What they say and what they do are two different things.”

The salvo came after the premier, Dominic Perrottet, dismissed Labor’s plan to create a new “great koala national park” by setting aside thousands of hectares of state forest stretching between Kempsey and Coffs Harbour.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...nsw-teals-as-they-seek-to-win-coalition-seats

 

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Here is another relevant article.

New South Wales Labor promises to create ‘great koala national park’ if it wins power

Party re-commits to establishing 300,000-hectare park in state’s north to turn around animal’s ‘grim trajectory’

The New South Wales Labor party will establish a new national park stretching from Kempsey to Coffs Harbour in a bid to save the state’s endangered koala population.

On Thursday the opposition leader, Chris Minns, will announce that the party will re-commit to establishing the “great koala national park” on the NSW north coast, which could see an area of about 300,000 hectares of key habitat for the native species protected from logging.

The park, which Labor has promised in the past two state elections, is likely to anger the timber and logging industry, which has previously claimed it would cost the state thousands of jobs. Other estimates claim the park would add about $1bn to the state’s economy over 15 years.

Labor has sought to head off criticism by promising an initial $80m to first carry out consultation and an independent economic assessment of the park’s “impact on local jobs and communities”.

NSW Labor promises to create ‘great koala national park’ if it wins power