Nearly 2 million hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.
The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.
It is more than 10 times larger than the area the NSW government is assessing for a possible “great koala national park”. But most of the cleared area – 81% – was in Queensland.
About three-quarters of the lost forest is estimated to have been cleared for agriculture, to create cattle pasture and crop fields. The analysis found 13% was removed by the forestry industry and 5% for development of infrastructure, including mining. Just 4% was likely due to natural causes, such as bushfire and drought.
Nearly all of the forest destruction occurred on a small scale that did not require consideration under federal environment law. Less than 2% of it was approved by the federal environment minister.
Koalas in Queensland, NSW and the Australian Capita Territory were formally listed as being vulnerable to extinction in 2012. In 2022 the threat level was raised to endangered after scientists concluded that numbers were likely to have dropped by half over the previous 20 years.
The species faces a host of threats in addition to losing its habitat, including the climate crisis and disease. Dr Christine Hosking, a conservation scientist at the University of Queensland who has researched how the climate emergency will shrink the koala’s habitat, said the threat was “playing out now in real time”.
“Areas of New South Wales and Queensland have seen big reductions [in koala numbers] and that’s been down to protracted droughts and heatwaves,” she said. “Koala’s can’t thermoregulate above about 37˚C and we now get successive days above that [as well as] days over 40˚C in a row. They simply can’t survive.”