What must we do to save the Koala in SEQ?

Like us, one of the Koala's favourite places to live in all of Australia is South East Queensland.

With development growing in our region, and the Koala uplisted to endangered in 2022, we must avoid their slow decline and ensure they can live here with us for generations to come.

What work really needs to be done? The level of investment that might be needed? The changes to our system of planning and development? To infrastructure? And what can we as citizens do to help?

Speakers

Join us for this important conversation and Q&A, with:

• Professor Darryl Jones, urban ecologist, nature lover, and broadcaster
• Shannon Mooney, Landscape Planner and author of Holding the Line: Reversing Biodoversity decline
• Sara Hicks, Climate Advocate at Gecko Environment Council (Gold Coast and Hinterland), and consultant, education designer, and facilitator
  

Background

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is one of the most internationally recognised Australian animals. In 2022 it was uplisted to endangered by the Australian Government in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

In September 2023 QCC commissioned an independent rapid ecological report on ecological values threatened by development, in light of the SEQ Regional Plan being updated. Holding the Line: Reversing Biodiversity Decline found that only 31% of the region currently offers koala habitat. With 30% coverage generally being the internationally and ecologically recognised minimum benchmark to ensure we can sustain healthy ecosystems, the report authors strongly urged that

all remaining koala habitat should be viewed as critical, noting that there is not currently enough longer term for a healthy population to persist regionally.

Specifically in SEQ, the Eastern coastal lowlands are the most important and productive areas for koalas, and will become ever more so, as climatic changes reduce their range in other regions.

Yet in order to avoid the functional extinction of koalas in SEQ, we must not only save what habitat remains, but preferably restore it to at least between 40-50% of the region. Critically, this also means that what habitat we do have, must have connectivity, i.e. the ability for animals to disperse and move around different habitat.

In regional areas, the greatest threats to koalas are landclearing. Near our towns and cities it is urbanisation itself, with piecemeal habitat clearing, and poorly designed neighbourhoods bringing Koalas into contact with threats like speeding traffic and dogs.

But we can change this trajectory! Join us to find out how.