The theme for this year’s International Day of Forests (21 March) is ‘forests and health’. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the important role that forests play in our lives and whether our national environmental laws, which are currently under review, are doing enough to ensure that future generations...
NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean has today announced a Zero Extinction Threatened Species Strategy, setting a 2030 target to stabilize or improve trajectories in national parks. As the nominator of many of the states’ listed threatened species, Humane Society International welcomes the increased investment for conserving species in national parks.
Humane Society International Head of Campaigns, Nicola Beynon, commented that: “Elevated protection is good news for the species that will benefit from it and investment in monitoring ecological health in national parks is also good practice to track conservation outcomes. However, to truly battle the extinction crisis the NSW Government also needs to ensure threatened species conservation is happening off park in the wider landscape. This is especially so for imperiled species like the koala who rely heavily on eucalypt habitat on private land.”
Fearing extinction for the koala by 2050 HSI has jointly nominated the koala for upgraded statutory protection as an emergency nomination to Endangered on the NSW threatened species list (nominated with IFAW, Friends of the Koala and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital). While we very much welcome today’s declaration that the koala habitats are an Asset of Intergenerational Significance in national parks, HSI is also anxiously anticipating the government’s strategy for protecting their habitat on private land.
Image: Jim Evans
