Welcome to 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. Will it be a turning point for the Koala or even for nature in Australia? We’d like to think so. At the very least the year presents an opportunity to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the natural world, not to mention recognising that Australia’s biodiversity is in serious trouble.

In early December Friends of the Koala, along with 40 or so other groups across the nation signed on to the Boobook Declaration. The Declaration is auspiced by Friends of the Earth Australia. It arose out of an informal meeting, rapidly morphing from an idea into an action statement supported by hundreds of thousands of Australians.

Boobook calls on the Australian Government to:

1. Acknowledge the critical importance of safeguarding biodiversity as part of Australia’s climate change response and commit to correspondingly urgent action to address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss.
2. Increase investment in biodiversity and ecosystem protection, restoration and management to at least $9 billion over the three years to 2012 and establish an independent consultative process into future funding and stewardship of Australia’s terrestrial, aquatic and marine diversity.
3. Restore and increase publicly funded research capacity.
4. Develop education and training programs for all sectors of the community.

The full text of the Boobook Declaration is at www.boobook.org.au/declaration.htm Information on the International Year of Biodiversity is at http://www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/

Around the same time the Australian Koala Foundation announced its revised estimates of koala numbers in the three states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The Foundation puts the total population between 42,535 (minimum) and 78,830 (maximum) – a long way short of their previous figure of 100,000.

The estimates for the electorates of Richmond and Page, which more or less replicate Friends of the Koala’s area of operation, are 500-600 and 400-580 respectively, i.e. an estimated maximum of 1,180 koalas remaining in our neck of the woods (see:

www.savethekoala.com/images/conservation/koalanumbers/nswelectorates.jpg).

On the basis of the sighting reports we receive and the animals we admit each year, we believe the figures are too low but we don’t dispute that the days of sharing our region with wild koalas are probably numbered.

During Copenhagen the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission released its report Species and Climate Change: more than just the Polar Bear. The report presents ten flagship species chosen to represent the impact that climate change is likely to have on land and in the world’s oceans and rivers. The Koala is included because elevated CO₂ levels will reduce the nutritional quality of Eucalyptus leaves, causing nutrient shortages in the species that forage on them. No longer able to meet their nutritional needs, koalas, renowned habitat and food specialists, will succumb to malnutrition and starvation.

On the ground, Friends of the Koala volunteers were feeling the full force of a species under pressure. During the month from mid-November to mid-December we and our vets dealt with the deaths of nearly 40 koalas from across the Northern Rivers. Trauma and fire accounted for only a few. Most died of disease and metabolic starvation; a truly horrible lead-up to Christmas.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Just as the restorative powers of the rain and cooler weather have worked their magic dropping admittances dramatically, we all have the capacity and opportunity to do our bit. Get involved in koala conservation – it’s not too late and there’s a lot at stake.

Information about koalas, their food trees and Friends of the Koala is available at: www.friendsofthekoala.org or email info@friendsofthekoala.org. To report a koala, phone Friends of the Koala’s (24/7) Rescue Hotline: 6622 1233.

Until next time, Happy New Year and keep up that koala spotting.

Submitted by Lorraine Vass for the January Issue of the Nimbin Good Times