Berliner Boersenzeitung - Australia warns koalas 'endangered' as numbers plunge

EUR -
AED 4.311517
AFN 80.459001
ALL 97.861046
AMD 449.221187
ANG 2.100718
AOA 1076.404609
ARS 1470.290435
AUD 1.791892
AWG 2.112899
AZN 2.000281
BAM 1.955013
BBD 2.36186
BDT 142.592634
BGN 1.956686
BHD 0.442465
BIF 3485.327509
BMD 1.173833
BND 1.49851
BOB 8.082783
BRL 6.553268
BSD 1.170034
BTN 100.194118
BWP 15.628646
BYN 3.828176
BYR 23007.121999
BZD 2.349665
CAD 1.604917
CDF 3387.681116
CHF 0.932257
CLF 0.029042
CLP 1114.483409
CNY 8.428413
CNH 8.427867
COP 4721.155341
CRC 589.9727
CUC 1.173833
CUP 31.106568
CVE 110.221126
CZK 24.648254
DJF 208.307083
DKK 7.461233
DOP 70.142976
DZD 152.223833
EGP 58.176561
ERN 17.607491
ETB 162.306368
FJD 2.634901
FKP 0.864841
GBP 0.86252
GEL 3.181417
GGP 0.864841
GHS 12.209078
GIP 0.864841
GMD 83.926443
GNF 10151.089069
GTQ 8.990421
GYD 244.622628
HKD 9.214546
HNL 30.588215
HRK 7.530838
HTG 153.529541
HUF 399.309142
IDR 19041.328036
ILS 3.884618
IMP 0.864841
INR 100.434424
IQD 1532.376982
IRR 49447.704165
ISK 143.407551
JEP 0.864841
JMD 186.993974
JOD 0.83225
JPY 171.616637
KES 151.365347
KGS 102.651416
KHR 4697.150304
KMF 494.183253
KPW 1056.423672
KRW 1612.059556
KWD 0.35849
KYD 0.974804
KZT 606.623365
LAK 25203.752916
LBP 104810.480117
LKR 351.667023
LRD 234.536643
LSL 20.882514
LTL 3.466023
LVL 0.71004
LYD 6.326482
MAD 10.564498
MDL 19.827108
MGA 5177.894824
MKD 61.530165
MMK 2464.470539
MNT 4212.368283
MOP 9.458295
MRU 46.636324
MUR 53.080621
MVR 18.074825
MWK 2028.375324
MXN 21.8418
MYR 4.989986
MZN 75.078902
NAD 20.850323
NGN 1793.616166
NIO 43.04305
NOK 11.834586
NPR 160.312236
NZD 1.953052
OMR 0.451335
PAB 1.169734
PEN 4.152629
PGK 4.907109
PHP 66.216227
PKR 333.957537
PLN 4.242845
PYG 9066.391117
QAR 4.265302
RON 5.073068
RSD 117.164962
RUB 91.794533
RWF 1683.276171
SAR 4.402767
SBD 9.786155
SCR 17.225646
SDG 704.881407
SEK 11.152469
SGD 1.50142
SHP 0.922448
SLE 26.414414
SLL 24614.690259
SOS 668.528197
SRD 43.725855
STD 24295.968071
SVC 10.234839
SYP 15262.325911
SZL 20.849523
THB 38.253444
TJS 11.317395
TMT 4.120153
TND 3.421238
TOP 2.749233
TRY 46.999799
TTD 7.942771
TWD 34.302327
TZS 3084.286863
UAH 48.893221
UGX 4199.328454
USD 1.173833
UYU 47.321164
UZS 14870.01764
VES 133.35479
VND 30639.969489
VUV 140.042854
WST 3.231986
XAF 655.690416
XAG 0.032209
XAU 0.000353
XCD 3.172342
XDR 0.815468
XOF 655.696
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.891327
ZAR 20.844629
ZMK 10565.899751
ZMW 28.454674
ZWL 377.973668
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Australia warns koalas 'endangered' as numbers plunge
Australia warns koalas 'endangered' as numbers plunge

Australia warns koalas 'endangered' as numbers plunge

Australia officially listed koalas across a swathe of its eastern coast as "endangered" on Friday, with the marsupials fighting to survive the impact of bushfires, land-clearing, drought and disease.

Text size:

Conservationists said koala populations had crashed in much of eastern Australia over the past two decades, warning that they were now sliding towards extinction.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said she had designated koala populations as "endangered" to offer them a higher level of protection in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland.

The koala, a globally recognised symbol of Australia's unique wildlife, had been listed as "vulnerable" on the eastern coast just a decade earlier.

"We are taking unprecedented action to protect the koala," the minister said, highlighting a recent government promise of Aus$50 million (US$36 million) to protect and recover koala habitats.

Environmentalists welcomed the koalas' new status but condemned Australia's failure to protect the species so far.

"Koalas have gone from no-listing to vulnerable to endangered within a decade. That is a shockingly fast decline," said WWF-Australia conservation scientist Stuart Blanch.

"Today's decision is welcome but it won't stop koalas from sliding towards extinction unless it's accompanied by stronger laws and landholder incentives to protect their forest homes."

Conservationists said it was hard to give precise figures on koala populations in the affected eastern states.

But estimates by an independent government advisory body -- the Threatened Species Scientific Committee -- indicated that koala numbers had slumped from 185,000 in 2001 to just 92,000 in 2021.

- 'Losing a national icon' -

Alexia Wellbelove of the Humane Society International said east coast koalas could be extinct by 2050 if no action was taken.

"We can't afford any more clearing," she said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said its own research showed that the federal government had approved the clearing of more than 25,000 hectares of koala habitat since the species was declared vulnerable a decade ago.

"Australia’s national environment laws are so ineffective they have done little to stem the ongoing destruction of koala habitat in Queensland and NSW since the species was supposedly protected a decade ago," said the foundation's nature campaign manager, Basha Stasak.

"The extinction of koalas does not have to happen," Stasak added.

"We must stop allowing their homes to be bulldozed for mines, new housing estates, agricultural projects and industrial logging."

Australia's koalas had been living on a "knife edge" even before the devastating "Black Summer" bushfires of 2019-2020 because of land-clearing, drought, disease, car strikes and dog attacks, said Josey Sharrad, wildlife campaign manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"We should never have allowed things to get to the point where we are at risk of losing a national icon," Sharrad said.

"The bushfires were the final straw. This must be a wake-up call to Australia and the government to move much faster to protect critical habitat from development and land-clearing and seriously address the impacts of climate change."

(S.G.Stein--BBZ)