The Hon. Verity Firth MP

Minister for Climate Change and the Environment

Level 33

Governor Macquarie Towers

1 Farrer Place

SYDNEY  NSW  2000

Dear Minister

Re: Management and Conservation of New South Wales’ Koala Populations

I am writing to you on behalf of the 300 members of Friends of the Koala, Inc.  We are a wildlife rehabilitation group with an energetic involvement in habitat restoration and enhancement as well as research, community education and advocacy.  We have been engaged in this work for some 22 years.

Friends of the Koala is licensed by the Department of the Environment and Climate Change to rescue, rehabilitate and release koalas across approximately 10,000 square kilometres on the Northern Rivers.  This encompasses the local government areas of Tweed, Kyogle, Byron, Ballina, Lismore and Richmond Valley, none of which have approved Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management (CKPoM) under State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) 44: Koala Habitat in place.

In this current reporting year, 1 July 2007 to date, Friends of the Koala has attended to over 300 koalas. Sixty percent of the koalas brought into our care have been diseased.  Since 2004 we have had access to the excellent diagnostic veterinary services of the Australian Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland.  Improved diagnostics is identifying an alarming range of diseases in our koalas. The percentage of diseased animals brought to our attention is increasing.

Minister, our members are dismayed at the failure of the New South Wales Government to implement a comprehensive conservation framework to ensure the koala’s long-term viability across the State. 

Whilst much of the preparatory work has been accomplished - we refer in particular to the Draft Recovery Plan for the Koala (NPWS 2003) and the NSW Wildlife Survey conducted by the Department’s Policy and Science Division in 2006 – there has been sustained silence, much less any sign of leadership, as to how the Government intends to proceed.

We believe that maximisation of koala management and conservation outcomes will be achieved by co-ordinated work that supports broadly agreed objectives and priorities.  To that end we would like to see immediate release of at least the koala component of the 2006 Wildlife Survey results so that the koala’s current distribution in New South Wales and implications thereof are better understood.  We also urge you to make the Government’s koala conservation intentions known by clearly articulating the resourced framework of partnerships and processes the community can expect to work within to ensure effective management and protection of koalas across the State, as well as effective co-ordination and guidance in regional or localised recovery efforts. 

We thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to your prompt and detailed response.

Yours sincerely

.

Lorraine Vass

President

29 April 2008